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Frozen Mice Cloned

m0rphin3 writes "Japanese scientists have cloned mice whose bodies were frozen for as long as 16 years and said on Monday it may be possible to use the technique to resurrect mammoths and other extinct species. Could we finally see Jurassic Park become a reality, or perhaps use this for colonizing other galaxies?"

12 of 272 comments (clear)

  1. 16 years is not by BigGar' · · Score: 4, Insightful

    16,000 or 160,000,000 years. While this may be "just engineering" to some, it's still a big just as there's still a lot of DNA degradation that happens over the course of millennia. There's a lot of reasons this might not work for a species we've never seen develop.

    Of course it may work smackingly well and we'll all have miniature pet t-rex's in my lifetime. That would be sweet, the cat may not like it though.

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  2. Galaxies? by 1u3hr · · Score: 5, Insightful
    or perhaps use this for colonizing other galaxies

    Getting ahead of ourselves, arent we?

    Why don't we check out the 400 billion stars in our own galaxy first?

    Or is it you don't know what a galaxy is?

    (Sorry, is that too many rhetorical questions?)

    1. Re:Galaxies? by Rorschach1 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You beat me to it. This is one of my pet peeves, and it shows up a lot in the crap that tries to pass itself off as science fiction on TV and in the movies. Does the general public really have no idea what a galaxy IS, or how far away other galaxies are, or how MANY stars there are in our own galaxy?

      Same thing with time scales. Seems like no one cares too much to keep their millions, billions, and trillions straight. Come on, folks, it'll only take you 30 seconds of research to avoid making your ancient galactic empire a thousand times older than the universe itself.

      Maybe writers think that because they don't understand it, no one else does and it doesn't really matter. Maybe I'll start writing sports stories, and attribute everything I don't understand to the infield fly rule, since I don't really understand it. No matter if the story is about football.

  3. Not dinosaurs by rrohbeck · · Score: 3, Insightful

    because there's hardly any DNA left in those fossils, let alone anything that's not damaged beyond recognition.
    Mammoths, saber toothed cats or other species that have gone extinct more recently on the other hand...

  4. Jurrasic Park by clarkkent09 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Mammoths? Correct me if I'm wrong, but you still need a live animal in order to clone a dead one. I guess they can grow them in an elephant or another close cousin, is that the idea?

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  5. Re:That juicy t-bone steak by Ethanol-fueled · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Many vegans have the righteous "anti-establishment" mentality while refusing to understand that humans are omnivores and have been engineered to eat meats and plants. We need plants for minerals and meats for amino acids.

  6. Re:That juicy t-bone steak by billcopc · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I think it'd be easier to kill all the hippies.

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  7. Re:That juicy t-bone steak by Sloppy · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So it's like CGI porn for pedophiles? The atrocity is in yourself, not the act.

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  8. Re:That juicy t-bone steak by ShadowBlasko · · Score: 2, Insightful

    fanatical vegans... say that even if no animal was actually killed, people have still not subdued that part of themselves that gets pleasure from eating animal flesh.

    Mmmm. Animal flesh. (drool). I wonder what Vegan tastes like?

    Bitter. Very bitter.

    Which is why I don't date them anymore. Just cant deal with the taste of vegan women.

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  9. Not quite. by Brain-Fu · · Score: 2, Insightful

    We need plants for minerals and meats for amino acids.

    We get all the amino acids we need from plants. We don't actually 'need' meat at all. This belief is largely the product of successful marketing on the part of the meat and dairy industry.

    That doesn't mean we can't or shouldn't eat meat though. We do plenty of things we don't need to do, and it is ok.

    1. Re:Not quite. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I think it would be more accurate to say we don't need to eat meat anymore. Fact of the matter is, meat is a much more energy dense than plant matter. That's why herbivores seem to be eating all the time and carnivores are always laying around.

  10. Tofurkey?!? by AttillaTheNun · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Someone please explain to me the merits of Tofurkey.

    Why would a vegan/vegetarian give a rats ass if a hunk of tofu tastes like turkey (or a hotdog, hamburger, etc) unless they THIRST FOR THE TASTE OF ANIMAL FLESH!!!