Monday, March 27, 2017

A Very Mammoth Project


If movies like Jurassic Park have taught us anything, it’s that it is not a good idea to bring extinct animals back to life. However, an article was written about a project called “Woolly Mammoth Revival” led by Harvard geneticist George Church didn’t seem to get the hint. Research on de-extinction, the science of bringing extinct animals back to life, has been progressing significantly in recent years and the woolly mammoth may be the next animal to be brought back to life from extinction. Church’s work so far only focuses on single cells, but the team has been carefully placing mammoth genes into these cells belonging to their closest living relative, the Asian elephant. This will create a sort of hybrid animal that will be comprised mostly of Asian elephant DNA incorporated with mammoth DNA to give it the characteristics of a mammoth.
The rest of the article has a lot more information, more than most people will care to read, but over-all, while I do not agree with reviving the woolly mammoth, I do fully support the processes associated with this project because of the benefits these genetic techniques will have towards living endangered species. Using gene manipulation and “test tube” embryos, science has made great strides in conserving endangered species and further enhancement of such techniques will prove invaluable to these animals’ genetic diversity.

3 comments:

  1. This is a really cool idea, but I can't really see much use in bringing back a woolly mammoth. I think it would be more beneficial to study prehistoric plants DNA. They might have different biochemical processes that may be used medicinally today.

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  2. Alexander, I agree with the comment above in that I am not sure the usage of a wooly mammoth but I also believe we all have the same right to be here on earth as anyone else! The proposal of a hybrid animal in previous days was only something out of sci-fi movies and I find it really cool that we are getting closer to achieving this!

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  3. This idea is fascinating. It would be incredible if they could implement a conservation plan to protect threatened and endangered species. I personally would love to see them bring back an extinct species so we can do genetic tests and find valuable information about species we know very little about.

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