Surfing through the web and trying to catch up with news around the world, I came upon this story.
As a person who studied this kind of thing, it was kind of interesting. But then, midway through I kinda stopped, wondering whether or not this was for real. I mean, pufferfish? Sharing an evolutionary ancestor with humans? This means that at one time, long long ago, fugu and humans were the same thing. And sharing enough of an evolutionary ancestor so as to be able to find "nearly 1000 new human genes" in its own genome? Am I the only one who thinks this is a stretch? I mean, there's the big picture of a pufferfish... and I look at it, and there is nothing at least on the exterior to make me or anyone to believe that it has anything in common with me. The article somewhat addresses this in saying that some of the commonalities lie in the immune system, something that can't be seen from exteriors.
It is based on this theory, that millions of dollars are being pumped into this project to supposedly research diseases that humans deal with... not fugu. Granted, I don't know much about fugu, in fact, the only thing I know about it, is that they serve it in Japanese sushi restaurants (supposedly a delicacy because it's poisonous, leaving a tingly sensation when you eat it). But when looked at rationally, it seems like a mighty stretch to be putting so much money into. Just my opinion.