EPTScientists making attempt to Clone a Woolly Mammoth - Page…
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Disintergated
9 Posts
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DreamChaser
1649 Posts
On March 20 2012 22:32 Disintergated wrote: Riding a real mammoth that is alive would so awesome. Fixed for ya | ||
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.Natsu
68 Posts
On March 15 2012 22:16 Nyarly wrote: I figured they would have done that already.. What's the next step after mammoth ? Humans. And i believe there are already labs researching for it or doing it. inb4 savior baby. Why would you want to clone humans? We already have more than we can feed as it is. Also - mamoths are awesome. :D | ||
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Supah
708 Posts
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zalz
Netherlands3704 Posts
On March 20 2012 22:38 .Natsu wrote: Why would you want to clone humans? We already have more than we can feed as it is. Also - mamoths are awesome. :D Same reason humanity does most of the things we do. Because we can. | ||
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Vaelone
Finland4400 Posts
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schmutttt
Australia3856 Posts
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Lisamarin2012
United States2 Posts
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Antisocialmunky
United States5912 Posts
Its funner/more dangerous to let people fill in the blank. | ||
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gameguard
Korea (South)2131 Posts
On March 18 2012 00:00 -_-Quails wrote: You know the part in Jurassic Park where they used frog DNA to patch some of the gaps in the dinosaur DNA? In the movie that was done solely so they could have gender-changing raptors, but in real-life if you know approximately what genes you expect to be in a region and have access to DNA from a species similar enough in a relevant way in that region you can fill in the holes fairly well. DNA isn't just a giant unknown code. Enough DNA is shared between species that, with modern elephants still existing we probably have enough available data to avoid the obvious pitfalls. There is of course a risk of some anomalous error existing in the mammoth, or being introduced through interplay between mammoth and elephant genes, or an error at a boundary between original and filler DNA. You know that if you have a decent enough understanding of what a particular gene does you can often insert it without harm into very distantly related species. Examples include fish genes in plants, firefly genes in puppies, and jellyfish genes in pigs. Given this precedent, it is not impossible that, with sufficient modelling, mammoth DNA could be rendered usable and mammoths born with no significant health problems stemming from damaged source DNA or ill-chosen repair work. Were not talking about like 1 copy of the chromosomes or something. DNA deterioration from the elements and time wouldnt be much of a problem when you have a shitton of DNA strands from different cells. They will be damaged in different spots, in which case you can do hybridization and find out the correct DNA sequence. Its been so long that i forgot the technical terms for the techniques but its pretty basic. Mutations in the progenitor cells or something that results in the propagation of the mutated gene in all somatic cells would be a problem though. | ||
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DreamChaser
1649 Posts
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dgwow
Canada1024 Posts
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TheToaster
United States280 Posts
On March 18 2012 06:35 Aelip wrote: I'm sorry, but science doesn't have to be about improving our lives alone. Science is gaining new knowledge, and cloning a mammoth would be a huge feat in both finding out what we're capable of and finding out more about the species. There's really no scientific efficiency by discovering things about the wooly mammoth via cloning one. First off, the genetic offspring wouldn't technically be a wooly mammoth, but a forged copy with missing or corrupt DNA strands replaced by an elephants. Even in terms of priority, learning more about a single extinct species, that really wasn't even pivotal in terms of life's evolutionary history anyways, would be completely single minded and idiotic. If instead scientists could simply analyze the mammoth's gene sequences based on current species, then they wouldn't even require a live clone. The raw DNA alone would be enough to describe the species. This pretty much supports the fact that knowledge of gene sequencing has multiple applications, while the cloning of a single species only has a handful of applications. Even the basis of your argument is highly mistaken. "What we are capable of" isn't science itself, that would be technology. Science and technology are two extremely different concepts which people too often mistake for one another. Which is how we arrive at the bottom-line issue behind this mammoth cloning. Cloning a mammoth is a highly technological process, yet yields relatively little scientific knowledge itself. I recommend researching the development of the atomic bomb, i.e. The Manhattan Project in 1940's America. The Manhattan scientists were basically trying to create a technological result (the atomic bomb) using scientific knowledge they literally knew nothing about. Nuclear physics was largely unknown at the time, but building the atomic bomb allowed discoveries to be made on the fly. This mammoth cloning highly relates to this historical story. | ||
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