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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.
I don't understand... what would be unethical about this?
Ethics ?!? Hey, this could be better than bison burger.
I'm curious about why one would consider this unethical? That nature had her shot and declared these animals unfit for habitation on the earth, perhaps? That this could open the door to more widespread tampering with genetics? We interfere with the "natural order" all the time, most especially when it comes to our own comfort and survival. I'm sort of curious why people would suddenly start worrying about bringing extinct animals back to life. I'll admit I haven't given this a lot of thought yet, but my initial reaction is that it seems like a fascinating opportunity if we can pull it off.
Maybe someone that opposes this on ethical grounds could enlighten me.
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North Korea just anounced they've already cloned one (and T-Rex as well).
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I look forward to a giant Wooly Mammoth rampaging down the streets of Seoul, knocking down buildings and stomping cars all while carrying some scantily clad hot women with his trunk and being chased by a little boy shouting "Giant Elephant!, Giant Elephant!".
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I think realer is the bestest choice of words in this article.
...Can we do this cloning at Fukishima? I hear it's quiet this time of year.
Fantastic idea. I'm sure when the giant mutated god-mammoth/wolly-zilla discovers that our ancestors may have been responsible for it's species extinction all will be fine.
Hopefully, unlike elephants, mammoths do forget.
We were around while these beasts roamed the earth, and may have had a hand in their disappearance to begin with. Given that our ancestors evolved to eat these animals, my personal theory is that Mammoth meat is perfect, and thus it's likely to be the tastiest meat there is. I for one, am looking forward to cloning enough of these that we could grow them for meat.
Can't you be spending your time doing something more productive?
Consider that any successful experience in cloning anything adds to our knowledge base about cloning. By perfecting cloning, we can do a lot more than just bring back extinct species. We could, for example, grow entirely new organs cloned from your body to replace damaged or failing ones, organs that could be transplanted into you without fear of tissue rejection. Further, the practice of being able to reliably modify cells at the genetic level can lead to all sorts of other benefits in medicine, biology, and even far-flung fields as nanotechnology when you consider the scale you have to work in.
The whole "can't you spend your time/money better" argument is pretty short-sighted when you consider the enormous ancillary benefits. It's like saying why bother going to the moon when you can spend money on Earth. But without that impetus, we might not have the very computers and Internet you're currently using to read this post, or lasers to correct your vision, or lightweight, strong materials used to make the planes you fly on, or the fuel cells used to power zero-emission vehicles, or...you get the idea.
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Sure, I get that. I guess I'm just wondering why a Mommoth, as opposed to, I dunno, a human, is so valuable in a cloning exercise.
Part of the answer may be, you can make a lot of mistakes cloning a mammoth without people getting too upset.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
It seems surreal that we are talking about resurrecting Mammoths while their close genetic kin are still in a pretty harsh decline. Perhaps we should be trying to store sequences of good cross section of the remaining elephants so that in some future century we can dust off the old thumb drives and bring them back with enough genetic diversity to properly re-introduce them somewhere.
No problem so long as it says "Eat ME!"
That's relevant to, but not the full story of, the ethical controversy over human cloning, but we're talking about mammoths. I don't think anyone's proposing that we insert mammoth DNA into human eggs.
Sounds like a military project. (Not all militaries would be willing to try this, but some certainly would.)
I shudder to think what this giant Wooly Mammoth intends to do with those scantily clad hot women...
I hope something comes of this.
I predict at least one South Korean cavalry division mounted on war-mammoths.
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A team called Revive & Restore is in the process of cloning the extinct passenger pigeon.
They're getting close to finishing the passenger-pigeon DNA sequence. That's the easy part though, next they will have to inscribe the genome into a living cell and produce a viable embryo, and from that a living offspring.
Keep in mind the passenger pigeon only became extinct in 1914, which is fairly recent compared to the wooly mammoth.
Considering that most of the world economy relies on consumption so needs a lot of people for the rich and powerful to stay rich and powerful then I would suggest that your "they" have fuckall political power and are unlikely to ever get the resources to be a threat.
Think about it - proposing something that is going to destroy the fortunes of both Republican and Democrat donors, not to mention the oil and gas profits of Russian kleptocrats and the export markets that fund the Chinese Communist Party. Which do you think is more likely to happen when "they" get serious - money for a secret lab or a cup of tea with Polonium stirred in?
Have I expressed my opinion clearly enough to outline why I see your suggestion as unlikely to succeed?