Word: specializer
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They're six healthy Tasmanian devils, seemingly identical to the rest of their kind. Yet they're being kept at a secret location in Tasmania, and scientists are calling them the Special Six. What makes these devils different, and has their keepers so hopeful, is their genetic makeup. A virulently infectious cancer has wiped out more than half of their marsupial species, and so far only one devil has shown signs of resisting the disease. Starting this week, the Special Six will be injected with tumor cells to see if they can do the same. If their immune systems attack...
...devil named Cedric. When tests showed that he had a different MHC type from eastern devils, Cedric was injected with dead tumor cells. The researchers were elated when his body began fighting them. Last December he was injected with live tumor cells. So far, he's still healthy. The Special Six, caught last year, also have MHC types not seen in the east, says immunologist Woods, who's based at the University of Tasmania. "It's never happened before that a disease has spread through a population without some animals being resistant - even Ebola doesn't kill everyone." So naturally...
...scientific effort to save the species, is hopeful too, but "we're not in any position, on the basis of one individual, to say we know what's going on," he says. "It's too early to unfurl the 'mission accomplished' banner." If Cedric or any of the Special Six do prove resistant, they could be bred back into the wild and into captive populations, improving the species' immunological fitness...
...they once roamed? Smith says the Save the Devil steering committee has informally discussed that; he thinks "it's a good idea to find out more about it." Those who oppose ecological tinkering are unlikely to support such a bold experiment. Of course, if Cedric or any of the Special Six stay well, it could be the need for such measures, rath-er than their species, that disappears...
...slogan on his T shirt. Hard-line nationalists in Belgrade who continue to reject Kosovo's Feb. 17 declaration of independence are poised to do well in the upcoming vote. They include the ultranationalist Radical Party, led by indicted war criminal Vojislav Seselj, who is facing trial before a special tribunal in the Hague, and the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), led by Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, who has called on the international community to "annul" the independence of what he terms a "fake state...