Scientists Optimistic About Getting a Mammoth Genome Complete Enough To Clone

Clark Schultz writes The premise behind Jurassic Park just got a bit more real after scientists in South Korea said they are optimistic they can extract enough DNA from the blood of a preserved woolly mammoth to clone the long-extinct mammal. The ice-wrapped woolly mammoth was found last year on an island off of Siberia. The development is being closely watched by the scientific community with opinion sharply divided on the ethics of the project.

Comments

Re:Unethical?

[xigxag]

Not saying I agree, but from a link in the article:

Dr Herridge questioned "whether or not the justifications for cloning a mammoth are worth the suffering, the concerns of keeping an elephant in captivity, experimenting on her, making her go through a 22-month pregnancy, to potentially give birth to something which won't live, or to carry something which could be damaging to her. And all of those aspects... I don't think that they are worth it; the reasons just aren't there."

Re: huh?

[davidrgreenberg]

It's not blood. It's a protein spot. It's more common in brown eggs because they're harder to screen with a backlight to weed out those eggs, although the spot is harmless.