Scientists aim to resurrect mammoth - Page 3

On January 18 2011 22:38 Scaipax wrote:
What's the point?
It's all kewl and stuff, but what's the point?

On January 18 2011 22:15 KwarK wrote:

Tasmania doesn't have so much permafrost.

On January 18 2011 23:46 SupaChicken wrote:
Knowing Japan, it'll just become a giant, carnivore Mammoth that'll destroy Tokyo.

..."If a cloned embryo can be created, we need to discuss, before transplanting it into the womb, how to breed (the mammoth) and whether to display it to the public," Iritani said

"After the mammoth is born, we will examine its ecology and genes to study why the species became extinct and other factors."..

The spread of advanced human hunters through northern Eurasia and the Americas around the time of the extinctions was a new development, and thus probably contributed significantly. Data derived from studies done on living elephants suggest human hunting was likely a strong contributing factor in the mammoth's final extinction. Homo erectus is known to have consumed mammoth meat as early as 1.8 million years ago.

Funny how whenever there's a thread about some random scientific undertaking, there are always people seemingly pissed off at the fact that we're studying our surroundings rather than solving world hunger or whatever.

On January 19 2011 00:41 anatem wrote:


it's got noting to do with that, i appreciate your sensitivity to puritanical narrow-minded argumentation, but boy you got the wrong guy

i'm all for pushing of scientific boundaries however they care to go about it, i just think this particular one is stupid, opinion to which i am very much entitled, surely you can see that and be more careful about assuming things in an argument before dropping the big words

oh, and please don't compare the study of microbes or columbus' ideas to this, those were very practical projects with evident benefits. taking risks in the the pursuit of innovation, understanding, or wealth, does not equal investing valuable resources into something that has no practical value. -and what bothers me isn't that they're doing it, but that there's this hypocrisy about this whole thing in that it hides under the pretense of being something reputable when it's barely more than an elitist version of those "brainiac" type of shows - for a main drive at least

and ye, while scientists do stumble upon great discoveries every once in a while accidentally, we'd get nowhere if instead of goal-oriented research we'd get this kind of joke experiment that looks to me more like grownups playing with their cool toys rather than serious researchers spending their time and resources on an experiment with projected benefits

-yes, i can see them making money were they to succeed with this, but unless more information as to what the specific scientific value of such an experiment would be is released by them, i can't take it seriously or give it more credit than i would give to a host of random publicity stunts coming from other less prestigious domains than clone research

note: i do respect the value of experimenting with random stuff just for the sake of it, as it's a good component of human individual development and evolution as a species, BUT this isn't art or circus. call it circus research and i'll be fine with that

though who knows, they might actually discover something amazing while doing this, anything's possible, and i'll think it;s very ironic if they do. till then, i think it's funny as hell, and that some guys with money/brainpower are too bored for their, and our, own good