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South Korean Scientists Prepare To Clone Wooly Mammoth

Posted by timothy on from the looking-forward-to-the-sweaters dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Last year Russian researchers discovered a well-preserved mammoth thigh bone and announced plans to clone a mammoth from the bone marrow within — and they just signed a deal with South Korea's Sooam Biotech Research Foundation to bring the project to fruition. The Sooam scientists plan to implant the nucleus of a woolly mammoth cell into an elephant egg in order to to create a mammoth embryo, which would then be placed in an elephant womb. 'This will be a really tough job,' Soaam reasearcher Hwang In-Sung said, 'but we believe it is possible because our institute is good at cloning animals.'" Not to be confused with a similar mammoth effort at mammoth-cloning at Kyoto University.

24 of 195 comments (clear)

  1. Mass production by MichaelSmith · · Score: 5, Funny

    Knowing the Koreans they will be turning out a million units a year starting in 2014.

    --
    http://michaelsmith.id.au
    1. Re:Mass production by philip.paradis · · Score: 4, Funny

      That would be a truly mammoth production level.

      --
      Write failed: Broken pipe
    2. Re:Mass production by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      And the first questions after they have successfully cloned a mammoth by the people will be, "How does it taste?"
       

    3. Re:Mass production by Ihmhi · · Score: 4, Funny

      They had better be careful. Things could get a bit hairy.

      --
      Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
    4. Re:Mass production by ryanov · · Score: 3, Funny

      I never buy cars from any company that doesn't allow wheels. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

    5. Re:Mass production by Mitchell314 · · Score: 4, Funny

      *tusk* *tusk*
      No need to be condescending; the Koreans know what they're doing.

      --
      I read TFA and all I got was this lousy cookie
    6. Re:Mass production by dbIII · · Score: 3, Informative

      Some Russians and their Siberian huskies already know the answer to that one. There's been a few thawed out over the last century, and one turned into a lot of dog food since the only thing that could really be preserved in a warmer climate long term was the skeleton.

    7. Re:Mass production by thomst · · Score: 4, Funny

      And the first questions after they have successfully cloned a mammoth by the people will be, "How does it taste?"

      And the answer will be, "Like chicken!"

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    8. Re:Mass production by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 4, Informative

      And even the Russians who sometimes enjoy a piece of slightly rotting meat

      Um, what? I'm a Russian, and I most certainly don't enjoy rotten meat, regardless of "slightly" and "sometimes".

  2. Arsenal by sixtyeight · · Score: 3, Funny

    Forget their nuclear capabilities. We now have a bigger problem.

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    The Wolfpack Project: BitCoin + Crowdfunding = Political Accountability
    1. Re:Arsenal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      STFU, you pompous windbag.

  3. Giants by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Next we'll need to genetically engineer giants to herd these mammoths...

  4. At Last... by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 5, Funny

    Knowing the Koreans they will be turning out a million units a year starting in 2014.

    I will FINALLY be able to get those giant, car tipping Bar-B-Que ribs Fred Flintstone caused me to lust after for so very long!

    --
    You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
    1. Re:At Last... by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 3, Funny

      Well, I'm thinking if trained properly they would also make great guard animals... a sign saying
      WARNING:
      Property Protected by
      Attack Mammoth!
      should make anyone think twice about entering.

      Also might be cool to breed them down to the size of a pony and ride them to work...
      But the ribs idea could help the world economy. Imagine the demand for Bar-B-Que sauce and over-sized napkins.

      --
      You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
    2. Re:At Last... by FireFury03 · · Score: 4, Funny

      You bastard, you made me google "Flinstone porn", and now I dearly regret it. Fucker!

      Read that as "nearly regret it"...

      --
      http://blog.nexusuk.org
    3. Re:At Last... by Hognoxious · · Score: 3, Funny

      Because Elephants aren't a particularly effective weapon. If they were, we'd all be talking Carthaginian now.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  5. This is good to hear considering... by GoodNewsJimDotCom · · Score: 4, Insightful

    the elephant might go extinct like the rhino due to poachers. At least we'll have mammoths. >.>

    I guess the optimist would go,"If we have the tech to do it for mammoths, we can get back other extinct life forms."

    --
    God spoke to me
  6. Mother of different species? by hawguy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    How well can an elephant's womb support an animal of a different species? Even human babies born to human mothers are in danger if something as simple as the mother's Rh factor is different than the baby's. Surely implanting an animal of one species into a completely different species will run into problems with rejection?

    1. Re:Mother of different species? by physicsphairy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      There's not really any way to know for sure without trying it. But there are a few reasons to be optimistic. We're talking genetically very similar animals (consider all the viable hybrids which occur naturally), and, when you think about it, the womb is a controlled environment. Once you have a highly evolved gestation system in place, selective pressure will tend to favor the existing system. (Look how similar embryos are, even across genetically distant species.)

      If it doesn't work, well, now you figure out where things went wrong and try again. Hopefully you at least have a new batch of cell nuclei to work with.

      --
      When things get complex, multiply by the complex conjugate.
  7. I don't even... by grasshoppa · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm not sure how much I trust any scientist that thinks elephants are born out of eggs....

    ( I keed, I keed )

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  8. Re:Saber Tooth Tiger, Dodo, Neanderthal and .. Chr by Tablizer · · Score: 3, Funny

    Here's what would happen if you cloned Jesus:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbcr-SQ-gEY

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  9. Escalation by srussia · · Score: 3

    Forget their nuclear capabilities. We now have a bigger problem

    How long before the North deploys oliphants at the border to counter the mammoth threat?

    --
    Set your phasers on "funky"!
  10. Re:Sweet by dbIII · · Score: 3, Funny

    On an aside, fuck the rhino

    Looks like we have a somewhat kinky but definitely tough enough replacement for Bear Grylls.

  11. Viruses by Sqreater · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Are they taking any precautions against the probability that the genome contains viral components just as ours does? If they cannot prove beforehand that no virus will start replicating from the Wolly Mammoth genome once they activate it, they should not be allowed to proceed.

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    E Proelio Veritas.