Researchers aim to resurrect mammoth in five years

[Political_Chucky]

TOKYO (AFP) – Japanese researchers will launch a project this year to resurrect the long-extinct mammoth by using cloning technology to bring the ancient pachyderm back to life in around five years time.
The researchers will try to revive the species by obtaining tissue this summer from the carcass of a mammoth preserved in a Russian research laboratory, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported.
"Preparations to realize this goal have been made," Akira Iritani, leader of the team and a professor emeritus of Kyoto University[/URL], told the mass-circulation daily.
Under the plan, the nuclei of mammoth cells will be inserted into an elephant's egg cell from which the nuclei have been removed, to create an embryo containing mammoth genes, the report said.
The embryo will then be inserted into an elephant's uterus in the hope that the animal will eventually give birth to a baby mammoth.
The elephant is the closest modern relative of the mammoth, a huge woolly mammal believed to have died out with the last Ice Age.
[URL="http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110117/wl_asia_afp/japansciencemammoth_20110117104445"]


http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110117/wl_asia_afp/japansciencemammoth_20110117104445 (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110117/wl_asia_afp/japansciencemammoth_20110117104445#)

[The Vegan Marxist]

This is really interesting news!

[Bad Grrrl Agro]

I want to raise a baby Mammoth and have it as my best friend.

[Widerstand]

And the reason that this won't fail like the times before is? Oh yeah right, because they were able to clone a frozen mouse.

[scarletghoul]

Cool, just as long as they let it live in a cold place with some friends. id hate to see such a magnificent beast confined to some cage alone for his whole life.

[The Fighting_Crusnik]

It'll be cool if they are successful. Though, my hope is that they won't try to revive the species for the sole reason that doing so would only screw up nature royally and would result in a lot of controversy/*****ing...

[The Vegan Marxist]

It'll be cool if they are successful. Though, my hope is that they won't try to revive the species for the sole reason that doing so would only screw up nature royally and would result in a lot of controversy/*****ing...

It's going to cause controversy anyways, and people are naturally going to ***** about whatever they can ***** about.

[Political_Chucky]

It's going to cause controversy anyways, and people are naturally going to ***** about whatever they can ***** about.

I bet people are going to call this disastrous and then point to the Jurassic park movies:laugh:

[psgchisolm]

Cool, just as long as they let it live in a cold place with some friends. id hate to see such a magnificent beast confined to some cage alone for his whole life.
It's better than roaming Siberia alone for his whole life. That's probably what he\she will be subject to since they probably plan on doing research on it.

[pranabjyoti]

There are problems. Mammoths, like other pachyderms, were social animal and a baby mammoth need a herd to be a proper mammoth. I also want to know where the mammoth can be placed in this world?

[Quail]

It would be so awesome if they set up a prehistoric animal reserve and you could go on a prehistoric safari type thing. Baby woolly mammoths would be so adorable!

I'm not sure about what they'll do with it though, because it would be a tad irresponsible to just unleash it on some unsuspecting ecosystem.

[Political_Chucky]

I think this is cool, but then again, I remember what George Carlin says

eScDfYzMEEw

[Blackscare]

And the reason that this won't fail like the times before is? Oh yeah right, because they were able to clone a frozen mouse.

Ah yes, it was tried before and didn't succeed. That means it can never possibly work ever, because everyone knows techniques don't improve. Yup, that's how science works.

[Ele'ill]

Great, they're creating a secondary zoo industry with this.

[Bright Banana Beard]

People will make industry for the fur, as in wool from the sheep.

[Frosty Weasel]

Pfft, I won't be impressed until they splice the DNA of raptors and sharks.

[Widerstand]

Ah yes, it was tried before and didn't succeed. That means it can never possibly work ever, because everyone knows techniques don't improve. Yup, that's how science works.

I'm not allowed to ask questions now, am I? Because it doesn't say anywhere in the text how they managed to reproduce the missing parts of the DNA. All that's mentioned is some reference to a mouse that was frozen for 16 years, which is remarkable, alright, but not comparable to a Mammoth that's been frozen and thawed up and frozen etc, decomposing in the meantime, for what, a few thousand years?

[gorillafuck]

It would be so awesome if they set up a prehistoric animal reserve and you could go on a prehistoric safari type thing. Baby woolly mammoths would be so adorable!
Someone should make a movie about that!

Oh wait....

[Amphictyonis]

The future of cloning reminds me of that movie Solaris. If (in the hypothetical distant future) you could clone a loved one somehow with their memories in tact would you? Would that be ethical?

[Political_Chucky]

I'm not allowed to ask questions now, am I? Because it doesn't say anywhere in the text how they managed to reproduce the missing parts of the DNA. All that's mentioned is some reference to a mouse that was frozen for 16 years, which is remarkable, alright, but not comparable to a Mammoth that's been frozen and thawed up and frozen etc, decomposing in the meantime, for what, a few thousand years?

I don't think if DNA has frozen for one year, or thousands of years, it will compromise the information in the DNA to allow this to happen.

[The Vegan Marxist]

Someone should make a movie about that!

Oh wait....

Yeah, because movies are the most credible piece of media we have on the planet, right? :rolleyes:

[Quail]

Yeah, because movies are the most credible piece of media we have on the planet, right? :rolleyes:
I took that post as a joke. Jurassic Park has nothing to do with the article in question, and it's not like Zeekloid was using that as a reason not to try and bring back woolly mammoths.

[The Vegan Marxist]

I took that post as a joke. Jurassic Park has nothing to do with the article in question, and it's not like Zeekloid was using that as a reason not to try and bring back woolly mammoths.

I hope it was. Though, I've been on this forum long enough to see joke-like posts actually come out to be serious. So I'm just being cautious.

[Magón]

I WANT ONE TO RIDE!!!!!! That'd be so awesome... but I hate the cold. Hopefully there will be some body heat that comes off the big beast to keep me warm.

[Amphictyonis]

I WANT ONE TO RIDE!!!!!! That'd be so awesome... but I hate the cold. Hopefully there will be some body heat that comes off the big beast to keep me warm.

Like when Han Solo used Lukes lightsaber to gut that taun taun in Empire Strikes Back at the 55 second mark. Brought to in in Chinese?

ZmVJ3dhb9NA

Mammoth sleeping blanket?

[Widerstand]

I don't think if DNA has frozen for one year, or thousands of years, it will compromise the information in the DNA to allow this to happen.

1. This exact thing has been tried before, as far as I'm aware not only with Mammoths.
2. It failed because the DNA was damaged, presumably because the Mammooth wasn't just frozen solid for thousands of years but rather began rotting before freezing, or thawed up somewhen then froze again, etc.
3. There has been no new Mammooth discovery as far as I'm aware, and in fact the article mentions none. Therefore we are to assume that all available DNA samples are still heavily damaged.
4. The article mentioned new technology. It nowhere mentions what exactly this new technology does, instead it says that a mouse had been frozen for 16 years and then could be used to retrieve clone-DNA. This leaves open the question of whether or not the mouse's DNA was damaged, and more interestingly, how this damage was fixed.

[PhoenixAsh]

Well...I for one will not be happy and satisfied until they bring back the Dodo. Mammoths are soooo last era :thumbdown:

But seriously...haven't they seen Jurassic Park? this is going to be a disaster!!!
:lol:



No...really serious.

I am concerned for the wellfare of the animal. What are they going to do? When we cloned a sheep and a bull we had them live in isolation for the remainder of their lives.
I also fail to see the purpose. Perhaps they could try to revive an existing species first from a long dead specimen? That at least would not reintroduce a whole scope of environmental problems. The way I look at it now, with the information I have, this is scientists trying to do something spectacular for the sake of publicity and funding.

DNA however can be repaired when you infuse it with similar DNA strands. I remember reading something a while back about frogs DNA. I do not know if in this case that is possible because it all hinges on the amount of damage that has been done to the DNA.

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

3. There has been no new Mammooth discovery as far as I'm aware, and in fact the article mentions none. Therefore we are to assume that all available DNA samples are still heavily damaged.

I thought they were pulling up frozen mammoths fairly frequently? In any case, you don't need a complete DNA strand - you only need to know how mammoth DNA differs from elephant DNA, and it should be possible to piece that together since there's plenty of material to work with - whole frozen bodies rather than the half-digested meal of a mosquito as in Jurassic Park.


I am concerned for the wellfare of the animal. What are they going to do? When we cloned a sheep and a bull we had them live in isolation for the remainder of their lives.

I'm sure they had a good reason for doing that.


I also fail to see the purpose. Perhaps they could try to revive an existing species first from a long dead specimen? That at least would not reintroduce a whole scope of environmental problems. The way I look at it now, with the information I have, this is scientists trying to do something spectacular for the sake of publicity and funding.

You know, one of the surest ways of knowing whether we can do something is to actually attempt it. Mammoths are currently the best prospect.

[PhoenixAsh]

I'm sure they had a good reason for doing that.


Yes..because releasing cloned individuals will contaminate the gene pool of other species. Which is logical but doesn't really help the sheep or the bull.



You know, one of the surest ways of knowing whether we can do something is to actually attempt it. Mammoths are currently the best prospect.

I agree. However...cloning a frozen panther dead for over a 100 years will also accomplish this. Stepping up from a frozen mouse to a mammoth while we not even fully understand the implications and consequences is imo over ambitious. If scientific cloning of degenerated DNA is the goal than that would be sufficient.

If reviving an extinct species to learn more about it is the goal then what good is that going to do...what practical puspose does it serve to study an extinct species by cloning it when we have a vastly different ecological system? What practical use does it have to study a mammoths inner workings for todays society?

I am not saying we shouldn't do it...all I am saying is that to me this sounds like publicity and funding. And not like resposible science.

[Frosty Weasel]

...It just dawned upon me...

Live action Ice Age movie!
http://www.abendblatt.de/multimedia/archive/00124/ice_HA_Kultur_Schee_124436c.jpg

[Magón]

Like when Han Solo used Lukes lightsaber to gut that taun taun in Empire Strikes Back at the 55 second mark. Brought to in in Chinese?

ZmVJ3dhb9NA

Mammoth sleeping blanket?

Hopefully I can have one where it's warm. Like these...

http://images.wikia.com/starwars/images/a/a2/Bantha-ST.jpg

[MarxSchmarx]

I am not saying we shouldn't do it...all I am saying is that to me this sounds like publicity and funding. And not like resposible science.

Right - I mean, what precisely would resurrecting the mammoth accomplish? If anything it seems to me like it would wreak havoc on ecosystems if it really were to be placed back in its natural environment.

We can make studies of reusing poorly preserved, degenerated or frozen DNA in a scientifically sounder fashion - in a way that we can compare mouse DNA reconstituted from tissue frozen with liquid nitrogen to control mouse tissue - that seems like a better experiment and far less costly, especially under capitalism, than pledging to resuscitate the mammoth basically for entertainment.

Of course if these people want to do it, I say go for it, but ultimately I don't really see why they should do it on the government's dime.

[Comrade Wolfie's Very Nearly Banned Adventures]

Right - I mean, what precisely would resurrecting the mammoth accomplish? If anything it seems to me like it would wreak havoc on ecosystems if it really were to be placed back in its natural environment.

We can make studies of reusing poorly preserved, degenerated or frozen DNA in a scientifically sounder fashion - in a way that we can compare mouse DNA reconstituted from tissue frozen with liquid nitrogen to control mouse tissue - that seems like a better experiment and far less costly, especially under capitalism, than pledging to resuscitate the mammoth basically for entertainment.

Of course if these people want to do it, I say go for it, but ultimately I don't really see why they should do it on the government's dime.

Well, atleast it will help with arguing with young-earth Christians. And will probably help when half of the Northern Hemisphere freezes if governments/corperations continue to do nothing about CO2 emissions.

Not to forget it would be a fantastic accomplishment to resurect an existinct animal, that Humans managed to hunt to extinction thousands of years ago.

[PhoenixAsh]

Right - I mean, what precisely would resurrecting the mammoth accomplish? If anything it seems to me like it would wreak havoc on ecosystems if it really were to be placed back in its natural environment.

We can make studies of reusing poorly preserved, degenerated or frozen DNA in a scientifically sounder fashion - in a way that we can compare mouse DNA reconstituted from tissue frozen with liquid nitrogen to control mouse tissue - that seems like a better experiment and far less costly, especially under capitalism, than pledging to resuscitate the mammoth basically for entertainment.

Of course if these people want to do it, I say go for it, but ultimately I don't really see why they should do it on the government's dime.

That was my point. The I am not saying we shouldn't do it refered to teh science.

So we are in complete agreement here.

[Black Sheep]

Does this qualify as "cloning a mammooth" ?
Isn't it more like "a mammooth impregnates an elephant" ?

[Widerstand]

Does this qualify as "cloning a mammooth" ?
Isn't it more like "a mammooth impregnates an elephant" ?

That's what cloning means outside of bad sci-fi films. Wtf do you think Dolly was?

[revolution inaction]

Does this qualify as "cloning a mammooth" ?
Isn't it more like "a mammooth impregnates an elephant" ?

No, they are not taking mammoth sperm and putting it in an elephant, which would result in a half mammoth half elephant, they are completely replacing the elephant dna with mammoth dna