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Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Science Is Cool

Posted by on August 15 at 10:47 AM

In Jurassic Park dinosaurs were cloned by way of mosquitos fossilized in amber. Turns out the theory may not have been too crazy after all:

Several well-preserved mammoth carcasses have been found in the permafrost of Siberia, and scientists estimate that there could be millions more.

Last year a Canadian team demonstrated that it was possible to extract DNA from the specimens, and announced the sequencing of about 1 per cent of the genome of a mammoth that died about 27,000 years ago.

With access to the mammoth’s genetic code, and with frozen sperm recovered from testes, it may be possible to resurrect an animal that is very similar to a mammoth.

The mammoth is a close genetic cousin of the modern Asian elephant, and scientists think that the two may be capable of interbreeding.

The frozen mammoth sperm could be injected into elephant eggs, producing offspring that would be 50 per cent mammoth.

The suggestion that it may be possible to recreate an animal that is at least part-mammoth has emerged from a study of mice by Japanese, British and American scientists.

To quote Dr. Malcom (Jeff Goldblum):

“God creates dinosaurs. God kills dinosaurs. God creates man. Man kills God. Man creates dinosaurs.”

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To quote Jeff Goldblum (Jeff Goldblum):

"I want my money back. And I want angels to give it to me. And pixies to count it out, and a gnome or a hobbit or an elf to sleep at the foot of my bed, and have - I just want them all over my backyard. But no matter what happens with any of that, I DO want my money back."

not only that, but it turns out stem cells can be used to repair your retinas (news today at uwnews.com).

just imagine having your very own sabre-toothed manimal!

Continuing the conversation from the movie: "Dinosaurs eat man. Woman inherits the earth."

To quote Jeff Goldblum:

"I forgot my mantra."

In Jurassic Park dinosaurs were cloned by way of mosquitos fossilized in amber. Turns out the theory may not have been too crazy after all:
Welllll.... Maybe if you don't want to worry about three or four orders of magnitude in the timeline.

The TimesOnline article talks about tissue from creatures that died 27,000 years ago, and about currently-living animals that are closely related to them. But dinosaurs were wiped out 65,000,000 years ago, and their closest living relatives are, most likely, birds.

65 million years is more than two thousand times more distant from today than 27 thousand years.

Bradley, if you're going to title your entry "Science Is Cool", you might make a better case if you weren't displaying such innumeracy.

Personally, I'm far more worried about hybrid Neanderthals. Cheney's an early experimental version, you can see how badly the first attempts worked.

@N: I don't understand what you are complaing about?

lol @ Will

Dr.Ian Malcom (Jeff Goldblum):
"Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."
But mixed breed mammoth-elephant babies would be sooooo cute!...

"What you call discovery.... I call a rape of the natural world."

All I can say is, The Great Spaghetti Monster didn't put us on this world just to mess around with his/her/its Divine Plan.

We were supposed to be polite dinner conversation partners, but no we go and trash the place and start messing with DNA and RNA and the SPCA ...

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