Russian and South Korean Scientists Have Signed a Deal on Joint Research Intended to Recreate a Woolly Mammoth

by leavingwt 14 Replies latest social current

  • leavingwt
    leavingwt

    This headline reminds me of what Ian Malcolm said in the film, Jurassic Park.

    "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."

    . . .

    The South Korean foundation said it would transfer technology to the Russian university, which has already been involved in joint research with Japanese scientists to bring a mammoth back to life.

    "The first and hardest mission is to restore mammoth cells," another Sooam researcher, Hwang In-Sung, told AFP. His colleagues would join Russian scientists in trying to find well-preserved tissue with an undamaged gene.

    By replacing the nuclei of egg cells from an elephant with those taken from the mammoth's somatic cells , embryos with mammoth DNA could be produced and planted into elephant wombs for delivery, he said.

    Sooam will use an Indian elephant for its somatic cell nucleus transfer. The somatic cells are body cells, such as those of internal organs , skin, bones and blood.

    "This will be a really tough job, but we believe it is possible because our institute is good at cloning animals," Hwang In-Sung said.

    South Korean experts have previously cloned animals including a cow, a cat, dogs, a pig and a wolf.

    Last October Hwang Woo-Suk unveiled eight cloned coyotes in a project sponsored by a provincial government.

    http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-03-skorean-russian-scientists-clone-mammoth.html

  • botchtowersociety
    botchtowersociety

    Very cool!

    I'd like to see all kinds of late plestocene/early holocene megafauna brought back. I suspect most of it went extinct because of our ancestors. The only part of the world where a large variety of megafauna has survived is in Africa, and I think that is because we evolved there. Those animals had time to adapt to what turned out to be a very disruptive new species.

    Let's bring back the Neanderthals too, while we are at it. We have the DNA sequences, and I don't doubt there would be individuals who would volunteer to be surrogates. I think we could learn a great deal.

  • UnConfused
    UnConfused

    The female elephant they choose will become the Virgin Mary of elephants

  • slimboyfat
    slimboyfat

    What about bringing back Neanderthals and other close relatives from the past?

  • slimboyfat
    slimboyfat
    The female elephant they choose will become the Virgin Mary of elephants

    I doubt they'll build a religion around it though, elephants aren't stupid.

  • botchtowersociety
    botchtowersociety
    What about bringing back Neanderthals and other close relatives from the past?

    The things we might learn...boggle the mind. Their brains were different from ours, and larger too.

  • No Room For George
    No Room For George

    This sounds like the beginnings of a VERY bad b-movie that the SyFy channel will play on Saturdays.

  • slimboyfat
    slimboyfat

    Is culture recoverable however? Without Neanderthal parents to bring them up how Neanderthal would they really be?

  • botchtowersociety
    botchtowersociety
    Is culture recoverable however? Without Neanderthal parents to bring them up how Neanderthal would they really be?

    The culture is lost. The biology is important, however. That said, I think they are fully human and should be treated as such when we do bring them back.

  • NomadSoul
    NomadSoul

    Bring back the T-Rex!

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