Jurassic Park?

[unforth]

Scientists begin to discuss realistic possibilities of using DNA of extinct animals to produce living ones - not Jurassic Park, actually, in that after 60,000 years DNA is too degraded to be analyzed with enough specificity...but woolly mammoths and many recently extinct animals like dodos may actually be replicable!

Heh, cool.

Comments

[galiyah.livejournal.com]

That is really cool. A real woolly mammoth would certainly be something to see.

[batgirl-raff.livejournal.com]

It does sound super cool...but unfortunately (speaking from experience as a researcher in this field), I think it's extremely unlikely this will take place in the near future. Maybe somewhere down the line....but there are some severe technical issues (which I won't get into) that need to be overcome first. I don't think the NYT really made that clear.

[oddsboy.livejournal.com]

Mmmm, dodo steak.

-Crow

[d-c-m.livejournal.com]

OH squee!!!

[moonandserpent.livejournal.com]

Maybe they can use that tech on Michael Crichton so we can have an amusement park of deadly hack writers!

[unforth.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and I like to think what it could do for species that have gone extinct in the more recent past, too...as batgirl_raff suggests, it's a ways off, but maybe in our lifetimes...

[unforth.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I got the impression that it's a real serious long shot - my own knowledge of biology (definitely less than yours!) suggests that too - but before they thought it was completely impossible, so I figure a small chance is way cooler than no chance.

[unforth.livejournal.com]

Mmmm, mammoth steak...

[unforth.livejournal.com]

Squee!

[unforth.livejournal.com]

lmao. What's horrifying is just how many people would go...

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

Neanderthals. That's where it's at.

[unforth.livejournal.com]

That interests me far less....I gather from some reading I've been doing that they are far less interesting than we've been led to believe. :)

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

The closest living relatives to humans diverged 7 million years ago. Finding out what another hominid species is like should be pretty interesting.