Scientists Resurrecting Woolly Mammoths

[Agow95]

I find the idea that we're bringing back mammoth's when the only environment they can inhabit is slowly melting away, which will kill them once again quite funny, and rather ironic if I'm honest.

 

[CorvusFerreum]

Can anyone help me find a source? I don't doubt this is true but I'd like to read the original. So far the Escapist's post links to another website who's sources are The Daily Mail, Fox News and Huffington Post.

A short search just gave me this (can't be arsed to search more): In 2003 Kinki received mammoth cells from sibiria. The plans to resurrect a mammoth existed back then already. The source [http://dlib.eastview.com/browse/doc/5102390] is not free, but there's a short aggregation.

But at least there's something on the partly deciphered mammoth genome [http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v456/n7220/pdf/nature07446.pdf] (it's a free article! hooray!) and something on multiplex PCR [http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v439/n7077/full/nature04432.html] (sadly not free) that is more substantial. Edit: Multiplex PCR of the mitochondrial genome of course, how could I forget to mention?


I had a practicum a the institute of the guys publishing the article on the mitochondrial genome, shortly after it was released. They also sequenced the genome of the neandertal human. They are awesome (just sayin').

Spoiler: Anyway

Oh and @ Joe Wike from facebook, Dodo's tasted horribly, the onyl reason they were eaten was because it was "fastfood".

I once (like ten years ago in some popular-scientific magazine) read about a scientist eating a steak from a sibirian mammoth mummy (after confirming the meat was still alright). He said it tasted like "roasted carpet slippers" if I remember correctly. Can't remember the exact sauce though, so take this for what it's worth.

Haha, after re-reading, the process is misrepresented. They are talking about Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer. Essentially, you don't take the nucleus from the somatic cell, you simply insert the somatic cell into the de-nucleated cell. Then you insert, fuse with electricity and when it forms a blastocyte, it is then implanted into the elephant.

Fascinating process really.

Edit: It's important to note that though this will be an exact genetic duplicate, it will look very different from it's donor animal.

Do you have some interesting sources (maybe methodic papers or interesting results on this) on this process? I haven't heard much about it, but it really sounds interesting.

 

[socialmenace42]

I used to be a palientologist. Then I took a mammoth to the knee
(had to be done)

OT: Hmmm, interesting stuff but cryogenic science realy is still in the teething phase: should we be able to revive such a furry behemoth it would be a mirracle and there would be a huge chunk of luck involved. Doesn't mean I'm not looking forward to mammoth rump steak... *drools*

 

[somonels]

Oh, they have been trying that for several years, with the tasmanian tiger as well. The technology exists, it is plausible, but a pointless attempt with it's current state. Even if we get the complete DNA sequence, the end result would be an aberration too faulty to live.

 

[Alar]

Wait wait wait wait wait wait wait... the rat was frozen for HOW LONG and they brought it back to life? Was it still functional? Did it seem to have all its facilities in tact? More importantly, can this process be potentially utilized on humans as well? If there was some way to preserve brain function while frozen...

Holy shit. Are we THAT CLOSE to having viable freezing and reviving of people decades later to heal their illnesses?!

You misunderstand. They took genetic material from the frozen mouse and cloned it. It was a precursor to an operation of this magnitude.

Not quite as awesome as I'd hoped, but still pretty cool.

 

[SnakeoilSage]

Awesome. Bring on the mammoth! It's only fitting since the human race probably drove the things into extinction very early on in our sentience. Them, and the neanderthals. We're a very cruel species.

 

[Stilkon]

So global warming actually helped the Woolly Mammoths come back?

 

[spartan231490]

Why? What purpose does this serve except our own twisted amusement. Let the past die, the world is no longer a place for mammoths. Fuck, we can barely take care of the species that are already on this planet, why are we trying to add more.

Wait...-whose- 'twisted amusement' exactly are you referring to? I don't see where the article mentions that this is case. But of course, I'm sure a bunch of scientists have nothing better to do with their time then resurrect dead mammals for fun. :/

If you can't see the value in that kind of research I don't really know what to say to you.

I guess, the gist of is is that it really isn't about the mammoths, it's simply that they're the most likely subject due to the aforementioned genetic material available that they don't have for other animals.

And my questions are equally if not more valid, for all other extinct species. For the vast majority of them, the environment they are meant to inhabit doesn't even exist anymore. Sure, we could recreate it in a zoo, but that brings us back to twisted amusement. Resurrecting entire species just to exist in captivity is cruel, and sick. Leave the past where it is, devote your time to saving those animals that are still around, not bringing back those that died off centuries or millennia ago, that have no place in the current ecology.

 

[Mike Kayatta]

Can I just say ... I'm sort of weirded out by the number of you Escapists who went directly to the gastronomical implications of this experiment.

 

[soren7550]

Can't wait to see how this turns out.

Hopefully, this could mean bringing back other extinct species.

 

[maxben]

Why? What purpose does this serve except our own twisted amusement. Let the past die, the world is no longer a place for mammoths. Fuck, we can barely take care of the species that are already on this planet, why are we trying to add more.

We're not, we are just trying to see if we can do it. Without knowing the limits of what we can and cannot theoretically/practically do, we cannot invent or innovate anything. This is just a test that does three things: 1. What is the limit on cloning animals that may be a little different from the surrogate animal? 2. Is resurrecting ancient animals the same as one's who had died recently (which the article notes was only done for the first time in 2008, so that process itself is worth looking into)? 3. Sounds cool so funding would be easier to get from public institutions than if they wanted to do the same thing with Ice Age mice.
Nobody wants to create a population of mammoth, what's the point? All we are doing is expanding science for its on sake just so somebody can come later on and say, "I can totally use that process from something useful."

Are you one of those people that argue against space exploration too?

 

[DeltaWolfson]

A Quote from Movie Bob... "Wheres my jet-pack?"

 

[Dominic Burchnall]

Personally, I'd love it if they could manage to do this with as many extinct species, find an Earth-analogous planet such as Kepler 22b, deposit them there, and see what course the evolution of the dinosaurs would have taken if the meteor had not struck the Gulf of Mexico circa 65 million years ago.

 

[Kopikatsu]

HAH! Take that religion, we are going to bring back a species that "god" wanted dead.

Everything is part of God's design. He wished for Mammoths to return to the world, so he imbued this scientist with the knowledge necessary to accomplish it.

See how easy it is to explain everything away?

 

[kouriichi]

Woolly Mammoths are extinct? I always though they were just living at the bottom of the ocean feeding off the dead whale bodies....

OT: Im really.... "eh" about this. I dont care if theyre successful or not. If they are, new form of food to put on the tables. ((Always wondered what they taste like.... and i wouldnt mind a Mammoth horn handle on my remote.))

If they dont succeed, oh well. It was a good try. Give it another go i guess.

 

[Caffiene]

If it does work though, the mother is in for one hell of a birth, as your typical woolly mammoth can grow to twelve feet tall and weigh upwards of 16,000 pounds. Ouch.

Considering regular elephants can grow to 13 feet tall and weigh 20,000 pounds, that doesnt sound like a particularly hard birth at all.

 

[Rutnier Nodarse]

This - Cure to world hunger. Infinite amount of Mammoth spawn

 

[Mordereth]

Why? What purpose does this serve except our own twisted amusement. Let the past die, the world is no longer a place for mammoths. Fuck, we can barely take care of the species that are already on this planet, why are we trying to add more.

Is it really that hard to see the benefit here?

Trying to save endangered animals in the current global setting is a losing game; you're only putting off the inevitable. The Past needs to live so we won't repeat it, don't'cha know?

With this technology perfected, we could theoretically return any animal with a close enough species still in existence. A Grizzly Bear female could potentially give birth to a litter of panda cubs (pandas being a rare case of something too thick to screw, yet to cute and lovable to let die).

 

[spartan231490]

Why? What purpose does this serve except our own twisted amusement. Let the past die, the world is no longer a place for mammoths. Fuck, we can barely take care of the species that are already on this planet, why are we trying to add more.

Is it really that hard to see the benefit here?

Trying to save endangered animals in the current global setting is a losing game; you're only putting off the inevitable. The Past needs to live so we won't repeat it, don't'cha know?

With this technology perfected, we could theoretically return any animal with a close enough species still in existence. A Grizzly Bear female could potentially give birth to a litter of panda cubs (pandas being a rare case of something too thick to screw, yet to cute and lovable to let die).

Just no. We are not gods, and science is not magic. Some things should be left well enough alone.

 

[spartan231490]

Why? What purpose does this serve except our own twisted amusement. Let the past die, the world is no longer a place for mammoths. Fuck, we can barely take care of the species that are already on this planet, why are we trying to add more.

We're not, we are just trying to see if we can do it. Without knowing the limits of what we can and cannot theoretically/practically do, we cannot invent or innovate anything. This is just a test that does three things: 1. What is the limit on cloning animals that may be a little different from the surrogate animal? 2. Is resurrecting ancient animals the same as one's who had died recently (which the article notes was only done for the first time in 2008, so that process itself is worth looking into)? 3. Sounds cool so funding would be easier to get from public institutions than if they wanted to do the same thing with Ice Age mice.
Nobody wants to create a population of mammoth, what's the point? All we are doing is expanding science for its on sake just so somebody can come later on and say, "I can totally use that process from something useful."

Are you one of those people that argue against space exploration too?

I'm all for space exploration.

I'm all for cloning too, we can push cloning technology forward in ways that don't involve bringing back members of an extinct species. What are we gonna do with this wooley mammoth? Shove it in some zoo in siberia to live out it's days in a damn cage? This is amoral, and serves no purpose besides.