Scientists working to clone mammoth within 6 years

[HPLovecraft]

Scientists from Japan, the US, and Russia hope to make a baby mammoth within 6 years and hope to study its ecology to determine reasons why it may have gone extinct:

The scientists say they will extract DNA from a mammoth carcass that has been preserved in a Russian laboratory and insert it into the egg cells of an African elephant in hopes of producing a mammoth embryo.

The team is being led by Akira Iritani, a professor emeritus at Kyoto University in Japan. He has built upon research from Teruhiko Wakayama of Kobe's Riken Center for Developmental Biology, who successfully cloned a mouse from cells that had been frozen for 16 years, to devise a technique to extract egg nuclei without damaging them, according to the Yomiuri report.

The U.S. researchers are in vitro fertilization experts. They, along with Kinki University professor Minoru Miya####a, will be responsible for implanting the mammoth embryo into an African elephant, the report said.

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/17...ammoth/?hpt=T2

This seems to raise a few ethical questions, doesn't it?

[Sliver]

It doesn't raise any ethical questions for me. I say go for it...sounds cool.

[Cheese]

Kinki University eh?

I think its great! Lets bring all of the extinct critters back!!

[Hemi-Cuda]

as long as Newman isn't involved we should be ok

[malcolmk14]

Awesome.

[burn_this_city]

I'm curious what swear word that japanese professor has in his name.

[Pacem]

I'm only on board if they can make mini versions that can pets.

[CaptainCrunch]

Its a scam they're going to staple a carpet on an elephant.

[FlamesAddiction]

I thought the reason they became extinct was habitat loss due to the Earth entering a warm period and over hunting by people in the arctic.

I still think it's pretty cool and would love to see one of these in the wild. It would freak me out a little if it were extinct human ancestor species though... but it is probably only a matter of time.

[VladtheImpaler]

In all seriousness, this would be fantastic. We brought the hairy cow back from extinction, so why not the hairy elephant? There is plenty of room in Northern Canada...

[CaptainCrunch]

Bets that the damn thing drops dead within a week because of a disease its not prepared for, or food that it has trouble digesting, or the air content is slightly different?

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by burn_this_city

I'm curious what swear word that japanese professor has in his name.

Miya$hita

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Bets that the damn thing drops dead within a week because of a disease its not prepared for, or food that it has trouble digesting, or the air content is slightly different?

I was thinking that it might have an unfortunate (but delicious) accident involving a teppanyaki griddle.

[CaptainCrunch]

If I was a billionaire I would personally fund a cloning program for extinct animals so I could charge a million dollars a plate for guests to join me at my Island paradise for an evening of eating long extinct species and genetically engineered new ones.

Image a appetizer of carrier pidgeon and raptor on a bed of rice, followed by a plate of cave man fingers, for the salad, I'm thinking some long gone relative of the fern tree. or a fish soup made up of the Blue Whale. The main course would either be a slowly BBQ'd T rex with a side giant sloth legs. Or Saskqwatch grilled over moon rocks. For dessert, well pie al a mode with the milk being taken from a brontosauraus.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

If I was a billionaire I would personally fund a cloning program for extinct animals so I could charge a million dollars a plate for guests to join me at my Island paradise for an evening of eating long extinct species and genetically engineered new ones.

Image a appetizer of carrier pidgeon and raptor on a bed of rice, followed by a plate of cave man fingers, for the salad, I'm thinking some long gone relative of the fern tree. or a fish soup made up of the Blue Whale. The main course would either be a slowly BBQ'd T rex with a side giant sloth legs. Or Saskqwatch grilled over moon rocks. For dessert, well pie al a mode with the milk being taken from a brontosauraus.

Blue whales aren't extinct. Wiki.

You can live the dream today!

[troutman]

They made great vacuum cleaners in Bedrock.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Blue whales aren't extinct. Wiki.

You can live the dream today!

Damn

I remember growing up, and in school and they kept saying that the Blue Whale was almost gone.

I see that they figure that there are about 11,000 world wide, still way down from the suspected 30,000 in the 1930's.

[Sliver]

You were in school in the 1930s? I knew you were old but holy crap.

[CaptainCrunch]

How could you not know, didn't your mom tell you about us?

[Sliver]

Uncle Dad is that really you?