Japanese Scientists Says "We'll Have Mammoths by 2015.

An interesting story:

A Japanese professor in Kyoto, Japan seems to have take a cue from Hollywood: he says that he'll be able to create a woolly mammoth by 2015, a mere four years now, in a Frankenstein-like twist.

Even the professor, Dr. Akira Iritani, admits it sounds strange on paper. By using a new technique that was used to clone a mouse that was frozen for 16 years, he plans to bring a species that died out over 5,000 years back to life.

Source

I think it's great that we might be able to see a creature that hasn't walked the earth in about 5 thousand years. I wonder whether we will be able to actually create families for them and introduce it into the wild as an endangered species or something of that nature.

Although it might be that they come out fertile.

Thoughts?

~Keeper

reply to post by tothetenthpower


I mean seriousley, hehe as scientifically interesting as that may be...didnt they make a movie and perhaps a couple of books about how absolutely foolhardy that is?...Wooly Mammoth, not so bad, some crazy terrasaur...not so good.

reply to post by tothetenthpower

Thoughts?

Jurassic Park immediately comes to mind and I would guess they make any resurrections sterile, but you know how mother nature can be. I think this is exciting but I also think it will only be the beginning. Can you imagine the spectacle, drive, and of course the money, resulting from this? You know other species will be next, like dinosaurs or cavemen, but maybe it would be cool to be able to maintain species that are going extinct too.
More Sci-Fi coming to reality, and I personally dig it, but it can't all be without some kind of detriment.
I am curious to any moral/ethical discussions pertaining to this.

peace,
spec

reply to post by tothetenthpower


Have these scientists learned nothing from Jurassic Park?

Dr. Ian Malcolm: "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."

Now on a serious note stories like these are pretty amazing and the advancements we are making in the scientific community are incredible to say the least.

My thoughts is that our desire to be more knowledgeable isn't properly balanced by our necessity to grow in wisdom to the same extent......

Basically what I'm trying to say is that I think these mad scientists operate mostly outside of what most people would consider as being moral & ethical. I honestly think we're a few years to a few decades off of unleashing pandora's box and causing our own extinction. Some would say we already did this long ago, and it's merely a matter of time before the full effects are realized.

As much as I think it would be cool to see a live wholly mammoth, I do think this is a foolish thing to be toying around with.

Another thread over here:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

A question I would pose to these scientists, is could revival of a species from so long ago affect the current ecosystem? Such a creature is likely not suited to the current climate and state of nature. There may be implications beyond what they can see.

Then again, I suppose prestige and recognition outweighs any ecological concerns.

You know, I was just thinking... What the hell do we need Mammoths for...? Can't we just focus on preserving what we have now and worry about bringing already extinct species back later...???

that is very intersting i wonder what they will be bringing back next ? dinos maybe

reply to post by totalmetal


I would completely agree with you if it were almost any other species, BUT, like beavers being returned to the UK to aid conservation of other wildlife, the argument for a full restoration of mammoths is that they are suggested to have been a keystone species - like the African elephant creates the savannah, they are thought to be responsible for much of the Russian grasslands - which, in their absence, is shrinking. The grassland provides habitat for a wide range of large, charismatic species, but currently (sans-mammoth), many of those species are at a fairly low level or locally extinct, despite subfossil remains indicating their former presence, and the very endangered big cats that would otherwise prey on them cannot, thus, persist over much of their former range.

So mammoths would, in theory, make conservation of some other species easier, as part of Pleistocene rewilding of Russia and northern europe.

si nce the world seems to be going backward, why not???? Hope they can bring back me someday, just to see a I TOLD YOU GLOBAL WARMING WAS REAL AND THE INSIDE OF THE PLANET WOULD HEAT UP AND STRETCH

How much food and water will they need to survive?
What would they eat?
How many other species would suffer by these mammoths coming back?
Where would they be planning on setting up their new home?
Would they be controllable?
How many would they be wanting to bring back? Can't have just one.

Too many questions, too many possibly bad outcomes.
Next, Siberian tigers anyone?

What's wrong with this?

Bring them all back, I say.

Jurassic Park was a movie.

They already made a list of the first ten things that they will clone a couple of examples are the wooly mammoth, neanderthols and the sabretooth tiger I tried to find the link but am unable to locate it but worth having a look at.

On second thoughts it might of been on this site or truth behind the scenes either way its worth a search.

Pix

I read about this and I am not a religious person at all but the fact that science is trying to play god scares me. We do not know the effects of doing so, and we do not know why these animals went the way of the dodo bird. We got to remember as a people even though we are curious there are consequences to things.

After making a Mammoth, they will kill it, chop it into strips, and stir fry the meat.
I wonder how it will taste with a bit of ginger and soy sauce?

That's great ! Mammoths are awesome. Hopefully they don't make a whole heap of mammoths, release them into the wild, then they're all hunted for their tusks and become extinct again straight away.

Cloning neanderthals I'm not too fond of.

It sure sounds cool of course,but think of the consequences! It can turn out to be a disaster, what if the thing evolves into somethin' else and starts spreading some f'up desease! Like uh I dont know mammoth zombies!
Or or wait for it, mammoth mutated swine-bird-horse-dog-cat-human hybrid flu!!!

reply to post by Golithion


Recreating life isn't necessarily playing God. Who is to say that God would be disappointed if we resurrected an extinct animal? Maybe cloning is a necessary stage of human scientific development. Are there moral implications? Yes. But the lone fact that we have the technology to resurrect an extinct animal and see it walk the earth again far outweighs any foreseeable consequences. Can you imagine seeing a wooly mammoth in real life?

reply to post by Locke23


My point exactly I mean I am up for a mamoth zombie hunt like any good redneck but think of it!

Yes I can think of it but there can be consequences like I said we don't know why these animals died off. We have assumptions and theories nothing more to go on. That is why I said we have to be careful, there are things in this world we just don't understand yet. And to play temperance with such a serious thing is dangerous in my opinion. And like I said I am not religious even though I used a religious phrase.