August 10 - The coming age of the chimera

Flights of fantasy have long envisioned animals with human traits. George Lucas’ “Star Wars” entertained millions of movie fans with an iconic tavern scene where all manner of beastly aliens packed a drinking dive and behaved in a way that any visitor to a biker bar would recognize. Beasts behaving badly. Science has a way of seizing fantasy and fashioning it into fact, so it shouldn’t shock anyone if someday soon, we can, like Dr. Dolittle, “walk with the animals, talk with the animals.” This would be the dawning of the creepy age of the chimera — a creature part human, part animal.