Quote Originally Posted by starmom View Post
Hey Morphie~ Could you disclose what this research is for and how it will be used?? I am confused!
Starmom,

If i get *enough* information (not sure how much enough is - i need a metric butt load, but i don't think that's a standard unit) i might be able to plot some data that gives me (us) an idea of what to expect from our spiders. What percentage are affected by what severity of spinning disorder at a given age? Are there factors that seem to be associated with expression (sex, temperature, etc.)? Based on what we know about genetics, do the ratios we extract seem to match up to any of mendel's laws, or perhaps it;s something more subtle? With a really huge amount of data, we might even be able to say to what extent it's linked to the spider gene and come up with a detailed proposal for removing it from future generations.

Those are the really ambitious goals of this project. It remains to be seen that they are practical. It's almost entirely contingent on the participation (or lack thereof) of you guys who own these snakes.

In terms of *me* who's heading it, basically it's a fun thing for me to cut my teeth on as an up-and-coming biologist who would like to feel a little more like a responsible morph enthusiast by doing something to try and help us understand what's going on with this particular gene.

So everyone, PLEASE! Fill out a survey! This tiny little wanky project depends on YOU to help it grow!