133. Chemo Cancer and a Jackalope?

Last winter a Canadian journalist interviewed an American scientist on the radio.  The following are some of the highlights I caught.  Since the story involves two scientists and therefore may get confusing, I will call the interviewee "Professor Now", and a scientist from the past "Professor Then".

Professor Now had decided to skip his boring research for a change and  write a book about the phenomenon of the Jackalope, a fictitious, mythical creature that made it's debut in the Midwest during the 1930s.  (FYI:  A Jackalope is a cross between a rabbit (or hare) and a deer, a miniature deerabbit if you will.  I can claim I have seen one a long time ago: I think it was in some old timer's garden shed, while my husband insists it was in a small bar in North Dakota.  At any rate, no doubt a fair amount of liquor was involved!)  The brazen professor put his research money to good use, crisscrossing all of the U.S. in search for any pertinent information on this chosen topic.  It was thus that he eventually met a husband and wife duo who had been manufacturing the lovely creatures in their basement over the course of some 30 odd years accumulating a hefty nest egg in the process.  But it did not dawn on poor Professor Now, till the proud couple opened their deepfreeze to reveal it to be stuffed to the brim with rabbit skins, that real-life rabbits needed to die in order for this cottage industry to flourish!

Professor Now also stumbled across some research done during the Depression by a previous colleague, Professor Then.  And this is where the book gets really interesting.  Professor Then was minding his own business, when word came to him that some starving hunters from the Dust Bowl area had spotted rabbits with horns on their heads, real horney rabbits. (pardon the pun)  It sounded so incredulous that he wanted to see and examine this phenomenon for himself.  The hunters obliged and provided him with some specimens which were examined and it turned out that the horney protrusions on their heads were caused by a virus.  Still, it took another 50 years of on-and-of research till there was a connection made between that and the Human Papilloma Virus, a strain of which, as you know, causes cervical cancer for which there is a vaccine at present!  Professor Now concluded the radio interview with an appeal to listeners to inform him and/or dispatch to him any horney animal you have ever come across...No, sorry, I don't think he meant your significant other!  😉

This leads up to my next topic:  Minuscule creatures that cause cancer.  Back middle of next week.  SanTeh!