

Plan to Stop Rhino Poaching by Growing Horns in a Lab - DiabloD3
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-hail-mary-plan-to-stop-rhino-poaching-by-growing-horns-in-a-lab

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gus_massa
I wish this idea works. The problem is that the main cause of rhino horn use
is magical thinking
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhinoceros#Horn_trade_and_use](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhinoceros#Horn_trade_and_use)),
but I suppose you can't grow the magic part in the lab and the users will want
the real thing.

It's similar to the jewelry use of diamonds. You can create artificial
diamonds in the laboratory, they are cheaper and they are used a lot in
industrial applications (maybe they are better because you can control the
impurities?). But for jewelry the people wants the real diamonds because they
apparently have some kind of magic.

~~~
lkbm
On the other hand, with diamonds, I'm guessing there are regulations ensuring
synthetic diamonds are labelled differently from natural. With natural horns
being illegal, who's going to know?

This might be harder for authorities to identify real horn products, but it'll
also make it harder for consumers.

Hopefully the authorities don't decide to solve the former problem with some
sort of certification that can also be used to solve the latter.

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xkcd-sucks
The market is probably flooded with counterfeit rhino horn already...

It's essentially just keratin, which can be reclaimed from hair and nail
clippings.

Most people don't buy entire horns, as the price is really high ($50k-100k/kg
according to google).

Keratin powder, or keratin pressed into chunks, would probably fool most
people, and there's effectively no way for consumers to verify authenticity.

So, fake rhino horn is easier than fake drugs, fake gemstones, fake currency
etc.

~~~
ChuckMcM
Wow, this suggests a really interesting hack by first setting up a 'nail salon
cleaning service' :-)

~~~
xkcd-sucks
The first few google hits suggest that current fakes are made of resin, etc.
with some frog meat thrown in for scent. So they're not so expensive that
people don't sell whole horns, unless they're all fake

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turbojerry
Great minds and all that -

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8248874](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8248874)

