Many of you have seen or heard about Wendy the whippet – a dog with a rare genetic mutation that has led to her being called the Arnold Schwarzenegger of dogs.

The genetic mutation is a deficiency in myostatin, which is a growth factor that limits muscle tissue growth.

But that rare genetic defect does not occur only in the whippet breed. In fact, it can and has occurred in other animals… even in humans themselves!

Behold! The ultimate collection of myostatin deficient monstrosities!

Meet Wendy.

Recently part of a genetics study done in the U.S. on mutation in the myostatin gene in whippets, people mistake her for a pitbull with a pinhead.

The uber-muscled whippets are called “bullies,” not because of their nature — Wendy likes nothing better than a good back scratch and isn’t shy about sitting in your lap to ask for one — but because of their size.

She’s about twice the weight of an average whippet, but with the same height and small narrow head — and the same size heart and lungs, which means she probably won’t live as long as normal whippets.

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Meet Belgium Blue cattle.

A heavily-bred breed that produces extraordinary amounts of meat.

Critics call Belgian blues “monster cows” and some countries have advocated eliminating the strain.

Belgian blue cattle have a natural mutation of the gene that codes for myostatin, a protein that counteracts muscle growth.

This mutation also interferes with fat deposition, resulting in very lean meat.

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Meet Mighty Mouse.

Muscle in a myostatin-deficient mouse; left, facial muscles, right, forelimb. Top is a normal mouse, bottom is a mouse expressing the mutant phenotype.

Scientists are able to delete the myostatin gene in mice. This is the result.

A muscle ‘explosion’ follows myostatin ‘neutralization’. The control mouse (normal) is shown for comparison. The ActRIIB mice have a genetic defect that prevents myostatin from binding to its purported receptor. Follistatin mice are genetically modified to express high levels of follistatin; this also results failure of myostatin to bind to its receptor. The result in both cases is dramatically enhanced muscle mass. Similar studies indicate large reductions in body fat. Strength and caloric output also increase markedly.

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Meet the German baby Superman.

Before he was 5 years old, he could hold 7 lbs. weights with arms extended, something many adults cannot do. He has muscles twice the size of other kids his age and half their body fat.

He was born to a somewhat muscular mother, a 24-year-old former professional sprinter. Her brother and three other close male relatives all were unusually strong, with one of them a construction worker able to unload heavy curbstones by hand.

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Meet Liam Hoekstra.

A 21 month old toddler from Michigan with myostatin deficiency, he has 40 percent more muscle mass than normal, jaw-dropping strength, breathtaking quickness, a speedy metabolism and almost no body fat. Liam came into the world with many birth defects. He had a small hole in his heart, enlarged kidneys, frequently vomited and was born four weeks premature. Medical records indicated that his biological father was “unusually strong.”

“He could do the iron cross when he was 5 months old,” said his adoptive mother, Dana Hoekstra of Roosevelt Park. She was referring to a difficult gymnastics move in which a male athlete suspends himself by his arms between two hanging rings, forming the shape of a cross.

Two days after birth, he was able to fully stand-up and support his own weight. Months later, he began developing ripped abs, naturally doing pull-ups, inverted sit-ups, Olympic styled iron crosses, thigh muscles compared to that of Lance Armstrong and even punching holes into walls during tantrums (he accidentally gave his Mom a black eye once as well).

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Meet Thomas Fleming.

An American illustrator whose body doesn’t produce myostatin.

However, the wonders of science and hard work can surpass even those born with a myostatin deficiency.

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Meet Richard Sandrak.

Also known as Little Hercules, is renowned for his physique at an extremely young age. He started training at two years of age and by the time he was six was pressing 4 times more than his own weight. His father only allowed him to eat according to a strict diet, consisting of liquid nutrients and vegetables.

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And then of course, there is former Mr. Olympia Ronnie Coleman and other bodybuilders who can develop physiques such as this:

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One famous bodybuilder who allegedly has a myostatin deficiency was Kenneth “Flex” Wheeler, whose 2nd place finish in the 1999 Mr. Olympia competition can be seen in this video:

Unfortunately, Flex Wheeler’s career was cut short in 2000 after he suffered kidney failure and had to retire from professional body building.

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But the real question is, what happens when someone with an even greater myostatin deficiency begins lifting weights, training properly and eating right?

In December of 2006, while receiving Britain’s highest scientific award, the Royal Society’s Copley Medal, Stephen Hawking stated that if the human race were to survive, it would be necessary to travel beyond planet Earth: “The long-term survival of the human race is at risk as long as it is confined to a single planet.”

However, he acknowledges that colonizing other worlds and interstellar travel present a number of nearly insurmountable challenges. “If we used chemical fuel rockets like the Apollo mission to the moon, the journey to the nearest star would take 50,000 years. This is obviously far too long to be practical.â€?

Successful manned space exploration will require not only a lot of money and technological expertise, but an advanced understanding of human psychology. Quite frankly, manned space exploration presents so many problems, that it downright sucks.

1. Psychological Stress. Benny Elmann-Larsen, coordinator of physiology in human space flight at the European Space Agency, says psychological stress could be the biggest problem of all.

A trip to the moon would last only a few days, which is short enough to be bearable. But life on a lunar colony or a trip to Mars would present months of confinement, boredom and monotony.

In fact, the sense of isolation and cabin fever could become oppressive. A 110 day isolation experiment carried out on a mock space station in Moscow showed how badly things can become. One module housed four Russian men; the other, three international test subjects, from Austria, Canada and Japan.

During a New Year’s celebration, two of the Russian men engaged in a 10 minute fist fight that left blood on the walls before they were restrained by the other men. And the mission commander hauled the only female, a Canadian, out of sight of the experiment’s cameras and twice gave her a French kiss that she fought in vain to resist.

The Japanese participant was so traumatized by this episode that he quit the experiment altogether.

2. No emergency care. Ailments such as motion sickness and impaired coordination, to toothaches and appendicitis would be difficult to treat. There would be few supply flights, or quite possibly none at all. And the distances could become so great that it would require 45 minutes for people on Earth to receive a question from a crewmember, and another 45 minutes to receive a reply.

3. Radiation. High-speed particles in space can slice human DNA, increasing the risk of cancer, cataracts, neurological disorders, and other problems. Without proper shielding (limited by spacecraft weight and design and increasing costs), astronauts would be bombarded by so much cosmic radiation on a trip to Mars that 1 in 10 of them could die from cancer. We would also have to address the problem of shielding people while on other moons and planetary bodies that lack Earth-like atmospheres.

4. Muscular Atrophy. Traveling through space requires a strict exercise regime in order to overcome the loss of muscle tone due to zero gravity.

5. Bone Demineralization. Bones become more porous, and thus weaker, on long-duration space missions.

6. High cost. Because space is so hostile for humans, all our needs must be met by creating a hospitable environment in space. Missions in space must be meticulously planned in order to avoid stressing our fragile bodies. We need food, water and air, all of which requires complicated and heavy equipment. All this machinery needs to be monitored, reducing an astronaut’s available time to carry out experiments. And it substantially reduces the payloads spacecraft can carry.

Currently, it’s estimated that just the shuttle program average cost per flight has been about $1.3 billion over lifetime and about $750 million per launch over its most recent five years of operations. This total includes development costs and numerous safety modifications. That means each shuttle launch could pay for 2 to 3 unmanned missions.

7. It can be used to further nationalistic agendas. The race to the moon was a direct consequence of the cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union. And now we can see the same thing happening with China’s manned space exploration programs. While competition can certainly be healthy, cooperation would more likely reduce conflicts.

8. Robots and telescopes may be more effective at increasing scientific knowledge. Most scientists agree that both the space shuttle and the International Space Station are an expensive and unproductive means to conduct space science.

However, the Mars Pathfinder and Mars Exploration Rovers have succeeded beyond the expectations of their designers and continue to deliver important data to earthbound scientists. Also, when the successful Deep Impact mission smashed into comet Temple, it released a cloud of debris that helps the understanding of comet formation and composition.

Such feats would be prohibitively more expensive and difficult if humans were involved.

9. Shuttle explosions put further flights on hold indefinitely. These tragic events have the unfortunate side effect of slowing the progress of space exploration.