South Korean Scientists Prepare To Clone Wooly Mammoth 195
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.
Mass production (Score:5, Funny)
Knowing the Koreans they will be turning out a million units a year starting in 2014.
Re:Mass production (Score:5, Funny)
That would be a truly mammoth production level.
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Mam?
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...'70s porn collection.
Re:Mass production (Score:5, Funny)
They had better be careful. Things could get a bit hairy.
Re:Mass production (Score:5, Funny)
No need to be condescending; the Koreans know what they're doing.
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They might just end up with an Elephant that has a hairy arse.
Re:Mass production (Score:5, Funny)
And the first questions after they have successfully cloned a mammoth by the people will be, "How does it taste?"
Re:Mass production (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Mass production (Score:5, 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".
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanging_(meat) [wikipedia.org]
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But that's only because it's "uneatable"!
Like a fox?
Re:Mass production (Score:5, 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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It's very much likely that it tastes like an elephant. Just like how an ape tastes almost like a human. (The brain is the most tasty part if you eat while the specimen is still alive)
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Better than dog, probably.
At Last... (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!
Re:At Last... (Score:4, Funny)
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.
Re:At Last... (Score:4, Funny)
Because Elephants aren't a particularly effective weapon. If they were, we'd all be talking Carthaginian now.
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You bastard, you made me google "Flinstone porn", and now I dearly regret it. Fucker!
Re:At Last... (Score:5, Funny)
You bastard, you made me google "Flinstone porn", and now I dearly regret it. Fucker!
Read that as "nearly regret it"...
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Why are you guys even talking about Wilma Flinstone in a sexual manner? You know she'll never leave Fred.
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Well I'd go with Betty, but I'd be thinking of Wilma ....
So is Betty...
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Re:Mass production (Score:4, 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.
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Despite the cliche, history doesn't predict the future, just gives it an easily observable option.
Arsenal (Score:4, Funny)
Forget their nuclear capabilities. We now have a bigger problem.
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You're right. It will be a problem of truly mammoth proportions.
On a related note, it's generally North Korea (officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea) that people are concerned about in terms of nuclear capabilities, not South Korea.
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One is a crazy Stalinist dictatorship run by a military junta with a personality cult, and is home to outrageous poverty, while the other is a modern capitalist democracy with American military and financial backing. Also, they're technically at war.
High-level reunification effort or no, I think it's probably best if you keep the distinction in your mind for at least a teensy bit longer.
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Please mod parent "redundant." The point was already made, and there is no need to senselessly attack someone who perhaps made a careless post.
Yes, I know this is Slashdot. Despite my present UID, I've been here since Rob started it as a glorified board. Yes, I operated BBSes in the 1980s. Yes, anyone who has a problem with this needs to get off my lawn. HAND.
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STFU, you pompous windbag.
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Don't make up some bizarre story that you and other people in the know already consider them to be one country.
As of February 27th, 2012 [wordpress.com]:
"Meanwhile, in Asia, signs of harmony and unity are multiplying. Discussions last week in Korea between a White Dragon Society representatives and South Korean representatives reached agreement in principle on many issues. First of all, the South Koreans agreed on unification between North and South Korea based on the principle of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un a ceremonial post (perhaps “symbol of unity”) and a palace. After North South unification, talks could begin
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Forget their nuclear capabilities. We now have a bigger problem.
Don't confuse "South Koera" with the The "Communist North Koera" just yet, they are totally different countries!!!
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Don't confuse "South Koera" with the The "Communist North Koera"
Exactly, North Korea did succeed in cloning long ago.
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And don't confuse either of them with the two Koreas.
Escalation (Score:4)
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?
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Tensions Mount After North Korea Destroys All Of Asia | Onion News [theonion.com]
0.000888 USD[1] (Score:2)
One Korea! Korean Won!
[1] Correct at time of writing. VWP, YMMV.
After that... (Score:2)
After that, they'll start producing mini-mammoths - great as Service Animals.
Transition to The Flintstones, 3% complete.
or maybe they'll just tweak (Score:2)
Tweak the hair-growth and tusk-growth genes on an Indian elephant and it will be close enough.
Giants (Score:4, Funny)
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Next we'll need to genetically engineer giants to herd these mammoths...
No, before that we'll need to reverse global warming to make our climate habitable for them -- I feel sorry for the big shaggy beasts having to cope in today's environment. There's a reason Elephants don't have thick hair: The ice-age is over.
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And what exactly do you think the mammoth ate? Snow and ice? How did the mommoth bodies get under the snow and ice? By digging through?
And just in time, too! (Score:2)
This is the advance we've been waiting for.... the one that will finally make kink-spring energy storage practical.
end in tears (Score:2)
This can only end well.
Poor thing (Score:2)
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So I'm thinking the poor thing is just going to get overheated, give up, and die like the rest of his kind did.
Explain how you have gained such amazing insight into how Mammoths became extinct? While there may be some theories on what happened, I don't think the fact that the climate warmed up at the end of the ice age is the only reason or factor to consider or even that these researchers have ignored the fact that Mammoths did thrive in a different climate than African elephants.
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I think they became extinct because they were all eaten by a burgeoning post-Holocene human population.
So they are good to eat. That makes the research worthwhile.
Sounds great (Score:2, Funny)
Until they figure out that mammoths are assholes and that there is another reason they are extinct.
Cue... (Score:2)
...Night At The Museum jokes....
This is good to hear considering... (Score:5, Insightful)
I guess the optimist would go,"If we have the tech to do it for mammoths, we can get back other extinct life forms."
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Like rational intelligent statesmen?
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Aren't those just mythical creatures? I don't think we've ever documented a specimen of that species.
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If the elephant goes extinct, what womb will be used to recreate them and their woolly cousins? hamsters'?
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The only question remains is "why should we bring back extinct or near extinct species" and "because we can" is not the acceptable answer.
Why not? Scientists can do whatever research they think is best, as long as someone wants to fund it and it isn't illegal. Humans are constantly doing things which have no useful purpose, just for the sake of doing them. If we didn't, the world would be a very dull place.
Are you a South Korean? Or Russian? You might be for all I know; but if you aren't, what business is it of yours? It's not your tax money being spent. If it were, you'd be allowed to voice your opinion at the ballot box, along with everyone
Huh. (Score:3)
I'm genuinely surprised nobody has yet to pose for an Insightful mod by quoting Jeff Goldblum.
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Mammoths can't fit through a Walk-In Refrigerator's doors, aren't carnivorous and who's going to say no to some good ol' Bedrock-Style BBQ Mammoth Ribs?
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Unpredictability in Complex Systems (Score:3)
There's, uh, another example. See, here I am now, by myself, uh, talking to myself. That's... that's Chaos Theory.
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I'm genuinely surprised nobody has yet to pose for an Insightful mod by quoting Jeff Goldblum.
If you mean the Jurassic Park quote about nature selecting dinosaurs for extinction, I'm not sure that totally works here since the most likely explanation for mammoth extinction is because humans ate them all when they moved into North America.
Mother of different species? (Score:5, 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?
Re:Mother of different species? (Score:5, 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.
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Well... things like Ligers and Tigons exist... if Lions and Tigers can mix, why not mammoths and elephants? They are just as close. (relatively speaking)
Not to mention Mules (donkey + horse)
Unless the comparison is different in this case?
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Well... things like Ligers and Tigons exist... if Lions and Tigers can mix, why not mammoths and elephants? They are just as close. (relatively speaking)
Not to mention Mules (donkey + horse)
To say nothing of the even more obvious combination: Humans (Homo sapiens + Neanderthals).
... or, as I like to call them, Apes with Nukes.
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How long before we have our own Bene Tleilax (Score:2)
because reviving old species might be the least valuable service. We can already combine material to get the egg we need who is to say that sometime down the road a fully artificial womb would not be viable and allow for replication of any specie?
I don't even... (Score:4, Funny)
I'm not sure how much I trust any scientist that thinks elephants are born out of eggs....
( I keed, I keed )
Sweet (Score:2, Insightful)
On an aside, fuck the rhino. If the countries that have them can't preserve them, the world doesn't deserve them. If Chinese men can only get it up by eating rhino horn and tiger dong, I hope they enjoy their limp penises in a couple of decades, because that's all they're going to have left.
Re:Sweet (Score:4, Funny)
Looks like we have a somewhat kinky but definitely tough enough replacement for Bear Grylls.
The Way Things Work... (Score:2)
...soon to appear on PBS as a live-action show!
(with narration by David Macaulay [wikipedia.org], natch)
But... (Score:2)
it will NOT be a mammoth (Score:3)
It will have elephant mitochondrial DNA, so it will be a Mammoth/elephant hybrid.
If they want a "real" mammoth (short of finding a female with viable eggs), they're going to have to replace the mitochondria also (and, no, midichlorians won't work either, although you'd end up with a very forceful animal), and keeping the egg alive while doing that has never been done, AFAIK.
What about the Dodo, the passenger pigeon,etc (Score:2)
and all the other species that went extinct in the last 200 years? Do you think we could we could try again???
Viruses (Score:3, Interesting)
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Christ! First The SuperRats and Now This! (Score:2)
And who's responsible when a couple of these get out of lab, eh?
I had enough trouble chasing down some goddamn superrats that escaped our lab. Finally fixed those smart little bastards by setting out chessboards with pawns made of poison cheese.
But WTF do I use to lure a f**k*** woolly mammoth? Do I _want_ to lure a wooly mammoth?
Am I the only one? (Score:2)
Just the man for the job! (Score:2)
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No but it will run linux
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There really isn't any compelling evidence that there ever was such a person, let alone DNA.
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Now, it's true, I very strongly doubt you'll ever find his DNA.
There is plenty of His DNA on the rim of the Holy Grail. The CSI/NCIS folks always use this trick when offering a suspect a cup of coffee.
And the sweaty Shroud of Turing is dripping with DNA from Holy Secretions.
And there is even dried Holy Blood on the Holy Lance used by Tony Soprano's ancestors to extort protection money from Jesus, while he was on the cross.
And finally, most Christian Churches pass around DNA samples of His Body and Blood during church services, where they are consumed by members.
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<vreenak>It's a FAKE</vreenak>
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While plenty of people may dispute the deity of Jesus Christ, there's no shortage of historical documentation that he existed, and had a major influence on society at the time
Citation needed?
Because actually, there isn't... Around that time there were plenty of Jewish sects and messiah-type figures running around in that part of the world, so the figure Jesus is undoubtedly based on one or more of them, but there is actually virtually no "evidence" of the existence of one Jesus of Nasareth for which the sources cannot be traced back to the "Christian" religious sect of the first few centuries AD - and no documentary evidence at all that can be dated to earlier than 50-100 years
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Perhaps the best source of historical information about Jesus of Nazareth is Josephus [wikipedia.org], where clearly Jesus was mentioned explicitly due to the role that his followers played in the events during the 1st Century AD (not called that BTW in his records). It isn't a perfect reference and I'll admit that you can interpret other individuals instead of the historical person that is claimed to have founded the Christian religious philosophies, but it also isn't correct to claim that no contemporary sources of info
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Care to post some? Which doesn't come from a motivated source (i.e., an early Christian sect)?
I actually tend to agree with you on the notion of "Jesus as a historical cult leader who was not magical", on the basis that there's never been a shortage of people starting cults, so there isn't likely to be much need to invent a fictitious person. However I've never seen or heard of any serious evidence that anyone meeting the description existed.
For one thing, there are no trustworthy sources. The only contempo
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"While plenty of people may dispute the deity of Jesus Christ, there's no shortage of historical documentation that he existed"
Care to produce some? Accounts of Christ were injected by the church into the writings of a Jewish historian and that is pretty much the extent of non-biblical references to Christ as a human. At least in a work written in the ballpark of the time the human is supposed to have lived. The earliest new testament work was written by Paul much later, he had a vision of Christ which he c
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Here's what would happen if you cloned Jesus:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbcr-SQ-gEY [youtube.com]
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You think we care about copyright here? ;)
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Two other things about the pros:
4) They can spell.
5) They can punctuate.
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South Korea is quite cold in the late fall through winter months. Perhaps they can send it on cruises to Siberia during the rest of the year.
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Quite cold might have been a bit of an overstatement, however it does drop below 0 Celsius with regularity. Additionally the humidity is not really an issue outside of the summer.
south korean climate (Score:2)
South korea's climate is quite cool and dry. Think a cooler version of SoCal's chapparal.