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What are your thoughts on this??

TOKYO (AFP) – Japanese researchers will launch a project this year to resurrect the long-extinct mammoth by using cloning technology to bring the ancient pachyderm back to life in around five years time.

The researchers will try to revive the species by obtaining tissue this summer from the carcass of a mammoth preserved in a Russian research laboratory, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported.

"Preparations to realise this goal have been made," Akira Iritani, leader of the team and a professor emeritus of Kyoto University, told the mass-circulation daily.

Under the plan, the nuclei of mammoth cells will be inserted into an elephant's egg cell from which the nuclei have been removed, to create an embryo containing mammoth genes, the report said.

The embryo will then be inserted into an elephant's uterus in the hope that the animal will eventually give birth to a baby mammoth.

The elephant is the closest modern relative of the mammoth, a huge woolly mammal believed to have died out with the last Ice Age.

Some mammoth remains still retain usable tissue samples, making it possible to recover cells for cloning, unlike dinosaurs, which disappeared around 65 million years ago and whose remains exist only as fossils

Researchers hope to achieve their aim within five to six years, the Yomiuri said.

The team, which has invited a Russian mammoth researcher and two US elephant experts to join the project, has established a technique to extract DNA from frozen cells, previously an obstacle to cloning attempts because of the damage cells sustained in the freezing process.

Another Japanese researcher, Teruhiko Wakayama of the Riken Centre for Developmental Biology, succeeded in 2008 in cloning a mouse from the cells of another that had been kept in temperatures similar to frozen ground for 16 years.

The scientists extracted a cell nucleus from an organ of a dead mouse and planted it into the egg of another mouse which was alive, leading to the birth of the cloned mouse.

Based on Wakayama's techniques, Iritani's team devised a method to extract the nuclei of mammoth eggs without damaging them.

But a successful cloning will also pose challenges for the team, Iritani warned.

"If a cloned embryo can be created, we need to discuss, before transplanting it into the womb, how to breed (the mammoth) and whether to display it to the public," Iritani said.

"After the mammoth is born, we will examine its ecology and genes to study why the species became extinct and other factors."

More than 80 percent of all mammoth finds have been dug up in the permafrost of the vast Sakha Republic in eastern Siberia.

Exactly why a majority of the huge creatures that once strode in large herds across Eurasia and North America died out towards the end of the last Ice Age has generated fiery debate.

Some experts hold that mammoths were hunted to extinction by the species that was to become the planet's dominant predator -- humans.

Others argue that climate change was more to blame, leaving a species adapted for frozen climes ill-equipped to cope with a warming world.

I think that's a mistake of "mammoth" proportions.

Ah, shades of Jurassic Park! Let's see now, I'll take some preserved dinosaur DNA, put it in a frog egg, grow the egg in a test-tube and voila!

It's a good idea (and I'm sure researched by the science community), but I'm wondering if they will have problems with egg/fetus rejection from the surrogate elephant.

I assume that elephants are smaller than mammoths, so that may present a problem for the mother, assuming they can even get it work for that long. Gumby raises a good point about the possibility of fetus rejection. Whatever happens, I hope that they're cautious and careful of the elephant.

It seems like an interesting endeavour, but at the same time, I think maybe they should leave it well enough alone. Usually messing with stuff like that has unforeseen consequences. We don't know half as much about nature as we think we know.

On a lighter note, it kind of reminds me of people bringing back the dodos in the Jasper Fforde books.

It wouldn't be completely a mammoth. The mtDNA would still be from the elephant surrogate mother. Only the DNA in the nucleus would be purely from the mammoth donor.

I wonder if the same will happen as what happened to all the other clone animals: that the baby mammoth is genetically as old as its dead "parent". Honestly I don't think it works.

True age of the universe and religious beliefs aside, I think it is a very interesting experiment.. I also concur however that it is a dangerous one and if they should choose to proceed need to do so carefully and with the understanding that they are taking complete and full responsibility for their actions. Hopefully the excitement of it all will not cause them to act quickly and without proper consideration. That said, if successful I think it would be neat to have a "Jurassic Park" ...

..dane

A strange recall:

CNNMoney wrote:NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Mazda is recalling about 52,000 Mazda6 sedans in the U.S., because yellow sac spiders like to build their nests in part of the fuel system.

"A certain type of spider may weave a web in the evaporative canister vent line and this may cause a restriction of the line," Mazda said in a letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The evaporative canister vent line runs from a charcoal-filled canister that cleans air coming out of the gas tank. Blockage of the line can prevent air from getting into the gas tank as the gasoline is used, resulting in negative air pressure inside the tank. That can lead to a crack in the gas tank and the possibility of a fire.

There have been 20 reported cases of spider infestation in the Mazda6 -- all have been in cars with 4-cylinder engines, none with V6's. No actual fires are known to have been caused by the spiders, according to Mazda's letter.

Dealers will inspect and, if necessary, repair the fuel system in the cars. A spring will also be installed to prevent spider intrusion, according to the letter.
Hot cars from the Geneva Motor Show

Letters will be mailed to owners of affected vehicles beginning at the end of this month.

It's unclear why this particular spider -- the yellow sac spider -- seems to prefer the model year 2009 and 2010 Mazda6, company spokesman Jeremy Barnes said. All modern cars have the same type of equipment.

"Maybe they just like cars that go 'Zoom-Zoom'," he said. "We honestly don't know."

That's bizarre.

I just read that. Also read this...

Oldest Book Gets New Edits! Out with the word 'booty!' wrote: CHICAGO (Reuters) – A new edition of one the most popular English-language Bibles will offer substitutes for words such as "booty" and "holocaust" to better reflect modern understanding, a Catholic group said on Wednesday.

Nearly 50 scholars from all faiths and a committee of Roman Catholic bishops have labored since 1994 over the first fresh edition of the New American Bible since 1970, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said.

The annual best-seller to be issued by a dozen publishers beginning next week on Ash Wednesday "is a beautiful translation -- it's a new way to look at an old love," said Mary Sperry, who oversees Bible licensing for the bishops.

The changes go beyond a few words being altered, and include freshly-written notes that should help readers better understand the Catholic church's interpretation of biblical concepts, Sperry said. The Book of Psalms contains over 70,000 words, both text and notes, she said.

The revisions more accurately reflect translations of ancient Hebrew and Greek versions of the Old Testament and the constant evolution of modern-day language, Sperry said.

For example, the word "holocaust," which for most people refers to the World War Two genocide of Jews, was changed to "burnt offerings," which clarifies the original, positive idea of making offerings to God.

"Booty," which has come to have a sexual connotation, was changed to "spoils of war;" and "cereal," which many think of as breakfast food, became "grain" to reference loads of wheat.

In a change in a passage in Isaiah 7:14 that foretells the coming of Jesus and his birth to a virgin mother, the 1970 edition's reference to "the virgin" will become "the young woman," to better translate the Hebrew word "almah."

"The bishops and the Bible are not signaling any sort of change in the doctrine of the virgin birth of Jesus. None whatsoever," Sperry added.

The new edition will revert to more poetic versions of Psalm 23 to have it read, "I walk through the valley of the shadow of death," instead of "dark valley." And "I will dwell in the house of the Lord for years to come" was changed to "for endless days," which Sperry said carried a more profound and hopeful meaning.

The current edition of the New American Bible sold more than one million copies last year, mostly in the United States, the Philippines, India, and Africa. The new version could spark a pickup in sales, Sperry predicted.

The edition will be available in many formats: as a family hardback, a basic paperback, as an "e-book," as an "app" for cell phones, and in a Braille version.

Interesting, but on a side note, it is hardly the oldest book. It goes back further as an oral tradition, but speculation as to the age of the earliest written form varies widely from 13 to 800 BC. There are some more doubtful claims of earlier ages of maybe around 1000 or more. There are at least near a dozen earlier.

• Instructions of Shuruppak, circa 3000 BC
  Epic of Etana, circa 2600 BC
  Pyramid Texts, circa 2400 to 2300 BC
  Code of Urukagina, circa 2380 to 2360 BC
  Palermo Stone, circa 2400 BC
  The Wisdom of Ptah-Hotep, circa 2400 BC to 2600 BC
  En-hedu-ana’s Hymns, circa 2285 to 2250 BC
  The Epic of Gilgamesh, circa 2000 BC
  The Code of Ur-Nammu, circa 2100 and 2050 BC
  Coffin Texts, circa 2200 and 1800 BC
  The Iliad, circa 850 BC

OMG, they're dumbing down the Bible.... for profit.

Collector wrote:Interesting, but on a side note, it is hardly the oldest book.

The article didn't say it was the oldest book, I did. So the article is not to blame for the error. I was just being silly about how frequently the ßißLE gets edits done.

dotkel50 wrote:OMG, they're dumbing down the Bible.... for profit.

Well someone needs to pay the editors!

I thought it was interesting that they're going modern with making it an APP and such. Interesting.

Tawmis wrote:they're going modern with making it an APP

Your iPhone needs religion!