/* */

PDA

View Full Version : S.Korean, Russian Scientists bid to Clone Mammoth



~Zaria~
03-13-2012, 08:13 PM
Assalamu-alaikum,


S.Korean, Russian scientists bid to clone mammoth

By Natalia Kolesnikova | AFP – 12 hours ago



Russian and South Korean scientists have signed a deal on joint research intended to recreate a woolly mammoth, an animal which last walked the earth some 10,000 years ago.

The deal was signed by Vasily Vasiliev, vice rector of North-Eastern Federal University of the Sakha Republic, and controversial cloning pioneer Hwang Woo-Suk of South Korea's Sooam Biotech Research Foundation, on Tuesday.

Hwang was a national hero until some of his research into creating human stem cells was found in 2006 to have been faked. But his work in creating Snuppy, the world's first cloned dog, in 2005, has been verified by experts.

Stem cell scientists are now setting their sights on the extinct woolly mammoth, after global warming thawed Siberia's permafrost and uncovered remains of the animal.

Sooam said it would launch research this year if the Russian university can ship the remains. The Beijing Genomics Institute will also take part in the project.

The South Korean foundation said it would transfer technology to the Russian university, which has already been involved in joint research with Japanese scientists to bring a mammoth back to life.

"The first and hardest mission is to restore mammoth cells," another Sooam researcher, Hwang In-Sung, told AFP. His colleagues would join Russian scientists in trying to find well-preserved tissue with an undamaged gene.

By replacing the nuclei of egg cells from an elephant with those taken from the mammoth's somatic cells, embryos with mammoth DNA could be produced and planted into elephant wombs for delivery, he said.

Sooam will use an Indian elephant for its somatic cell nucleus transfer. The somatic cells are body cells, such as those of internal organs, skin, bones and blood.

"This will be a really tough job, but we believe it is possible because our institute is good at cloning animals," Hwang In-Sung said.

South Korean experts have previously cloned animals including a cow, a cat, dogs, a pig and a wolf.

Last October Hwang Woo-Suk unveiled eight cloned coyotes in a project sponsored by a provincial government.



http://za.news.yahoo.com/korean-russ...071305690.html





Reminded of Jurassic Park back in 1993?

Its interesting how Hollywood is always a few decades ahead of us.......



Reply

Login/Register to hide ads. Scroll down for more posts
Hulk
03-23-2012, 06:51 PM
does that mean that it will only be half mammoth and half indian elephant?
Reply

Who Am I?
03-24-2012, 06:03 AM
format_quote Originally Posted by Hulk
does that mean that it will only be half mammoth and half indian elephant?
At first, but the idea is that successive generations will become progressively more mammoth, until an almost "pure" mammoth specimen is obtained.

I've read a bit about this myself. The problem will be in creating a self-replicating organism, because many times the clones are infertile.
Reply

MustafaMc
03-24-2012, 01:32 PM
format_quote Originally Posted by ~Zaria~
His colleagues would join Russian scientists in trying to find well-preserved tissue with an undamaged gene.
Actually, this is a bit of a mis-statement. They would have "to find well-preserved tissue with an undamaged GENOME'. The difference between a 'gene' and a 'genome' is that a gene is a small segment of a single chromosome that codes for a single protein; whereas, a genome is the full complement chromosomes that each contain thousands of genes that code for all of the functions of a living organism. I kind of doubt they will find cells with an fully functional genome as biological material decays over time even when it is frozen. If the woolly mammoth had been preserved in liquid nitrogen at -321 degrees F, that would be a different story.

Even if they are successful, you would have the equivalent of an Adam or an Eve and it would not be able to mate with itself. If the cloned animal (woolly mammoth genome and an elephant cytoplasm) was fertile, then it would have to mate with an elephant. We know that matings between related species can produce offspring but those offspring are nearly always sterile, for example a female horse and a male donkey produce a sterile mule that is unable to reproduce.

Isn't it ironic that many species are going extinct every year and they are trying to bring one back from extinction so they can put it in some zoo?
Reply

Welcome, Guest!
Hey there! Looks like you're enjoying the discussion, but you're not signed up for an account.

When you create an account, you can participate in the discussions and share your thoughts. You also get notifications, here and via email, whenever new posts are made. And you can like posts and make new friends.
Sign Up
~Zaria~
03-24-2012, 02:46 PM
^ Good points made.

I wonder how they imagine this being pulled off then?
Could they know something that we dont?......

It baffles the mind that whilst millions of people around the globe are facing extreme poverty, starvation, disease and war.......some are focused on spending millions on trying to revive an extinct animal.

Is a creature, whose existence has ceased by the wisdom of Allah - worth more than human life?

Its truly sad......


:wa:
Reply

MustafaMc
03-24-2012, 03:45 PM
I think it has a lot to do with the arrogance of man and trying to bring a species back from extinction, sort of like resurrecting the dead. Scientist don't ask what is the point of doing something before beginning to do it.
Reply

Who Am I?
03-24-2012, 05:34 PM
format_quote Originally Posted by MustafaMc
I think it has a lot to do with the arrogance of man and trying to bring a species back from extinction, sort of like resurrecting the dead. Scientist don't ask what is the point of doing something before beginning to do it.
Nope. We all know that creatures like the mammoth and dinosaurs existed. We have fossil evidence to prove it. So we know that Go created them. We also know that at some point, they were wiped out. We don't know when or why, but apparently God saw fit to destroy them, by His will.

It does make me a little sad that I won't ever get to see such creatures, but it is God's will that they are gone, so I can't worry too much about it. For me it is enough to know that they did exist, and I can always imagine a world with such creatures.
Reply

Hey there! Looks like you're enjoying the discussion, but you're not signed up for an account.

When you create an account, you can participate in the discussions and share your thoughts. You also get notifications, here and via email, whenever new posts are made. And you can like posts and make new friends.
Sign Up
British Wholesales - Certified Wholesale Linen & Towels | Holiday in the Maldives

IslamicBoard

Experience a richer experience on our mobile app!