Extinct Mammoth, Coming To a Zoo Near You 312
Techmeology writes "Professor Akira Iritani of Kyoto University plans to use recent developments in cloning technology to give life to the currently extinct woolly mammoth. Although earlier efforts in the 1990s were unsuccessful due to damage caused by extreme cold, Professor Iritani believes he can use a technique pioneered by Dr Wakayama (who successfully cloned a frozen mouse) to overcome this obstacle. This technique will enable Professor Iritani to identify viable cell nuclei, and transfer them to egg cells of an African elephant which will carry the mammoth for a 600 day pregnancy."
That would be awesome (Score:4, Interesting)
Pleistocene park, coming soon to a zoo near you. Doesn't quite have the same ring as "Jurassic" though.
Still I am willing to bet that this creature, if created, will be called "Manny", after our Ice Age mammoth movie star... any takers?
Re:before you do it (Score:1, Interesting)
before the hundreds of comments saying that this is wrong and shouldnt happen show up... dont bother.... lighten up and have a drink
fact of the matter is, the people who want to do this "just cuz we can lulz" are morons. really, really stupid.
think of all the damage kudzoo is doing in habitats where it is non-native. same deal with lots of other organisms that are NOT extinct. they hop aboard ships and such and find themselves in a new environment where they have no natural predators. then they overrun the place. these are organisms that have merely changed location in space. we've had similar problems with frogs and hornets and other invasive non-native species.
what other things can happen with organisms that have changed location in time? how will the ecosystem handle their sudden reappearance? what pressing need do we have for mammoths that overrides the risk? none.
this is just plain bad decision-making. Jurassic Park is a lot like 1984: it was meant as a warning, not a how-to.
Now we'll find out.... (Score:5, Interesting)
If my theory is right and there is an ingredient in Mammoth meat that makes our species sane!
Re:jaunty tune (Score:5, Interesting)
It seems a little strange to me that so many sciency-types tend to like Jurassic Park. I mean, yes it does have dinosaurs and a girl who loves Unix.
OTOH: "Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."
So, in the end, the scientists are blamed for the whole thing. Not the person who decided to make it a theme park. Not the person who disabled all of the security. Not even the person whose job it was to think: "What if all of our security goes?"
The scientists.
Re:before you do it (Score:4, Interesting)
Hannibal 2: The Carthaginianing
They're crossing the Alps and this time THEY'RE WARM
Re:That would be awesome (Score:5, Interesting)
Do you think they'll have nut obsessed rodents?
As much as squirrels and others love nuts, I think some crows in Japan deserve credit for doing something different with nuts. NHK (via Mhz WorldView) reports that birds have learned not only to drop nuts in the roadway where cars break them open, but to do it at intersections where the traffic gets stopped so they can pick up the pieces.
PBS also reported it:
http://www.pbs.org/lifeofbirds/brain/index.html [pbs.org]
Re:That would be awesome (Score:4, Interesting)
Considering that elephants can run at 40 km/h, which is 100 meters in 9 seconds flat, 200 meters in 18 seconds and 400 meters in 36 seconds, and the world records for those distances are 9.58, 19.19 and 43.18 seconds respectively, I fail to see how the inability to outrun a mammoth has ever been a problem.
Granted, we have no real knowledge of their actual speeds, so it could be 5 km/h but it could also be 60 km/h like a giraffe or 50 km/h like a white rhinoceros.
Humans have never really had a need to outrun any of our prey animals. We have relied on intelligence, stamina and weapons to take them down, not speed and strength.
But I'm guessing that just means you didn't descend from genes smart enough to outwit a cow.