My Community
General => TV & Film => Topic started by: harv on April 26, 2015, 09:44:10 PM
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It's gonna happen, starting with the Woolly Mammoths (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-32432693) :o :P
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A big leap from sequencing a genome and cloning an entire organism, without even trying to consider large numbers of them.
There would be massive problems in trying to recover a species from limited individual DNA samples (if they even have more than one viable sample).
If you're just cloning what would effectively be twins for the sake of a theme park, as in the films, completely unethical. Also, if a species has become extinct through natural processes, rather than anthropogenic causes, I'm not sure I'd support the reintroduction of a species, as it would be another step in screwing up existing ecosystems.
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Screw the ethics, it would be too cool to even think about ethics lol ;D
I'm not saying that they're going to be able to do this tomorrow, but they may be able to do this during the next 20 years or so.
Just a shame they can't get DNA from fossils >:( :'(
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Ethics aside, limited DNA samples (assuming they have DNA from more than one individual) would lead to all kinds of genetic problems with the cloned animals when it came to try to breed a viable population.
As for DNA from fossils, I have to chuckle at that one. Coming out of my exam for the Evolution (evolutionary biology) module of my degree, another student was informing us they'd basically written something about obtaining DNA from fossils. Should have seen their face drop when I pointed out what fossils actually are and that a true fossil would have no DNA.
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Thinking about it, you won't need to breed any...just clone sterile ones and clone more as needed lol...although it would be interesting to see if any bred baby Woolly Mammoths were any good at playing the banjo lmfao :o ;D