This year, a scientist created a featherless broiler chicken that’s so ready to climb into your stockpot, it’s hard to look at. It turns out that some small chickens carry a genetic mutation that prevents feathers from growing. These odd birds are good for eggs but too puny to make a meal. Avigdor Cahaner, a genetics professor at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, crossbred these tiny birds with robust broilers and ended up with a featherless chicken that can be mass-produced for the poultry industry. Cahaner insists on calling his creation a ”naked chicken,” as if ”featherless” were some kind of slur. Whatever you call it, this red, wrinkled creature is an oddity — strongly resembling that rubber-chicken novelty usually bought by the guy in the office who’s not nearly as funny as he thinks he is. More here.