"Scientists to Try Cloning the Woolly Mammoth" Topic

"Scientists from Russia and South Korea have signed an agreement to attempt to recreate this creature that roamed the earth some 10,000 years ago…"
Full article here.
link

But imho the most important phrase is:

""There is no good scientific reason to bring back an extinct species,"

I agree, to what purpose?
Only to hunt them?.
What's your opinion?

Amicalement
Armand

Because it would be freaken awesome! Why climb Everest? Because its there. Why jump from a platform at 29 kilometers in the air? Because I have to prove it can be done! That's why!

I don't think it's a good idea to base what science you do only on the known direct benefits that will come from it.

It's also problematic as even if successful, the cloned mammoth will likely not survive long. Its immune system is evolved for the bacteria and viral agents of 10,000 years ago, not today. One good rhinovirus, and the thing is a big hairy lump of elephant meat. Even if it proves hardier than that, can it eat today's plant life? That may be less of a challenge, but this beastie has a lot of obstacles to overcome, assuming they manage to reproduce it.

But I have no objections to the attempt, as such— with one caveat: Nobody, and I mean nobody on the scientific team behind it all can be allowed to utter the phrase, "Hey— what's the worse that could happen?"
If anyone says that, the lab should be immediately shut down and nuked from orbit, just to be sure.

It would be really kool if they could find a frozen allosaurus in antarctica
Bringing back a wooley mammoth would be a useful experiment. I'd pay to go see it in a zoo !

Because they're tasty. That's why they went extinct in the first place.

It may or may not be good science but it is undeniably cool.

I'm betting on the Cyrillic equivalent of " Hold my vodka and watch this!"

For the ivory alone.

The skills they learn from the process could be used to bring back species made extinct by human action.

And thus be re-introduced into the wild to restore ecosystems.

David F Brown

Pure science at its most essential… good stuff.

Absolutely cool.

But for me, the cool factor gets overwhelmed by the number of suffering mistakes/errors/mutants/not-prefect-copies that if at all, live short lifespans of pain before they must be put down.

It took 227 failures to get one Dolly.

I'm for it, and think it might be a good way to study the process, to perhaps bring back more recently extinct species, or to help in some way preserve ones that may become extinct soon.

I'm really interested in a small, pet dragon, about the size of a chihuahua, that can fly (of course, without the ability to breath fire).

Yeah, yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should. -- Dr. Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), Jurassic Park

But I still think its cool!

Tim

Mmmmm. Mammoth burgers.

Why not go for the passenger pigeon. Something wiped out recently that would have a better than average chance in the wild now.

Buffalo were brought back from the edge of extinction. If the baby gestates inside an elephant, then it should get some of its immune system from the mother. I would pay to see some Mammoth in a nature park

I think it could help inspire some kids to go into the sciences.

As for doing science because we can, well that genie has been out of the bottle for a long time. Dr. oppenhiemer said it well "I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds". That whole thing developed from "science for its own sake" physics research.

I'm thinking it would be better to focus on the well being of the animals that are already close to extinction rather than try and re-create the ones that are already gone…..That is just my opinion.
This being said, a wooly mammoth would be really cool to see.

Cap lock for this one. THAT'S FREAKIN FANTASTIC!!!!!!

Would a regular elephant survive giving birth to a mammoth baby?

May be an issue?

Mike

…because the talking, gun-toting gorillas will need something bigger than horses to ride!

More seriously, there can be ethical reasons to bring something back, particularly when there were human factors behind its decline/extnction. There wasn't any scientific reason to effectively kill off smallpox, but lots of human health reasons.

Would be interesting for science…
But…
Too many things can go wrong. I say Jurassic Park. I KNOW!

I'm with Irish Marine and Jovian 1!!! That is why we have test tubes.
Of course if things really got out of control we could end up in a land like … ZARDOZ, and how bad can that be!
That was for the Security Minister

The average schmuck wants to do it to see if Wooly Mammoths talk like Ray Romano. Scientists will do it if they think there is grant money in it for them. Colleges will want to do it so they can rename their football teams "The Mammoth" and boost alumni contributions. Environmentalists want to do it out of guilt. Hollywood wants to do it so long as they get the movie rights.

The History of Mankind is a story of unleashing forces we cannot control and then trying to clean up the mess.

Stupidity and greed, stupidity and greed,

Stupidity and greed, stupidity and greed,
>>
Yeah yeah,whats your point?? LOL!

Bob

Mammoths and mastadons are an important step in Smilodon reintroduction, and who doesn't want that?

I can see the rush to do it; Elephants will be extinct at some point, so better to get that mammoth bun in the oven sooner than later.

"In the meantime, geeky scientists continue their efforts to clone supermodels…."

Why not clone Raquel Welch from 1 gazillion years bc?-she had a pair of mammoths.

I've said for years that every medical school graduate should have to read and pass a test on "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelly before being let out into the real world.

Tony Lama fans are going to love this! I'll get my urban cowboy on if I could have a pair of boots made from genuine dinosaur .

The History of Mankind is a story of unleashing forces we cannot control and then trying to clean up the mess.

Name one force we have unleashed that we cannot control!

There are only two that potentially are a really major concern -- nuclear and biological weapons. And in both cases the problem is the humans, not the science.

In the meantime nuclear and biological research has yielded untold benefits.

I refuse to yield to alarmist Ludditism. Especially since the probability of rogue Mammoths running amok is basically zero.

Most clones are still a bit dodgy with plenty of unexpected defects. One might assume that even if a relatively intact strand of DNA is found, even minor flaws might have massive repercussions.

It's possible in theory, but I doubt we'll see a baby mammoth scurrying around any time soon.

There's evidence that some Native Americans worshiped mammoths. What price would you pay to have somebody bring back your god?