Resurrecting Mammoths
Researchers aim to resurrect mammoth in five years
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.
Researchers aim to resurrect mammoth in five years. 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.
from: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/17/researchers-aim-resurrect-mammoth-years/
By Agence France-Presse, Updated: 1/17/2011
I always hear about how the pro-Christians get really offended by scientist dwelling in the art and possibility of cloning as they feel that life shouldn’t be ‘created’, and that it should be (and only be) through Gods’ will.
Am I wrong to assume that the Buddhist approach on this would be almost neutral? Would it just be like having another animal in the animal realm – and for whoever to be reborn in that animal body, it would be based on their on individual karma?
I find it terrible if any animal should have to suffer through cloning experiments, as I’m sure that thousands of animals must have been born deformed in their trial and error processes…however, the end product of say cloning a Mammoth – it’s not a very wow occurrence in a Buddhist perspective, is it?
I can’t lie…I’m quite curious to see what it looks like. Ice Age 2 comes to life
Thank you,
Jean Mei
no elephant should be subjected to such experiments . the mammoth has been extinct for 65 million years. why would we need to know why ?? for what purpose are we resurrecting the mammoth ? this is horrible !! help and save the unsuspecting elephants who have to be sacrificed to this human vainglorious consumption of science and knowledge !!
Jurasic park teacher if we can think it we can make it happen no matter what ?
lets hope we can only think good things from now on so all of our babies can live in this Kechara( heavan on earth in happiness and peace forever from now. a small question, if one were to have been an independant student tirelessly seeking the truth of all schools of all things and came up with the conclusion one is everything that ever was and one is everthing that every will be so one must be the best he/she can be so the things that become will be better for everyone and this conclusion was drawn by watching animals insects people religions war, killing loving and then one looked for the most compassionately profitable way of carving a clear voice for the future of ones family where would one begin ? Andrew Hibberd
Dear Rinpoche, What is your opinion of this action of reviving species from animal realm from Buddhism prespective.
I think it is ok if there’s a purpose…otherwise it is another body for another consciousness to enter and ‘nothing’ more.
How ingenious is the human mind and how misguided it may be. Although I am all for progress and science, I cannot help wondering what the point is, of resurrecting a mammoth when there are endangered species that are not getting due atttention. The cynic in me thinks there is more glory in waiting for a species to be extinct and then try and bring it back to being…rather than focussing on the prevention of a species going extinct during our watch.
What would a Mammoth do in our world other than be a spectacle, a circus to boast of our human achievement?
Human beings are the only species known to be hell-bent on destroying its own environment. We are the only ones who have yet to learn to co-exist with our environment. I don’t even know what my environment is?
I see concrete, mortar, plastic, electrical things and a whole lot of man-made objects…none of which i can eat, none of which sustains me in the real sense.
-What us the karma of a species hell-bent on destroying itself?
I do not understand why they want to resurrect a mammoth which has been extinct for so long. It will just be another physical form for a consciousness to enter. Well without this mammoth the consciousness can enter other physical form that’s existing. Why resurrect and abuse the mammoth with more pain and suffering just for experiment. Poor mammoth.
We are going into a new age with technology to bring back extinct mammoth with modern day technology. That is extracting cells from long dead mammoth and injecting them into elephants for them to produce a replica of the long gone mammoth. I don’t think there is any wrong in this scientific research as killing are not involved. The elephants are not killed and the mammoth are long dead when the cells are taken from them. Its another project of cloning which has been successful. This is revival of the old age. Like in fashion olden times dressing are coming back into modern times again.
In my opinion, scientific advancement is incredible, just as long as the motivation is good. If cloning a mammoth can help the welfare of all living beings, so be it. But if the mammoth manifests and it stops there, please do not bring another being into samsara. Just like in motorsports, me in a ferrari 80% chance of victory against Michael Schumacher in a Perodua. Michael Schumacher in a Ferrari, 8 driver’s championships and 10 constructor’s titles. Michael Schumacher being the right motivation and ferrari being the wonders of technology. Mr. Schumacher, if you ever read this, i mean no offence, i am your greatest fan!!
And again, just to add. Michael Schumacher won 2 driver’s championships with Renault. It was the shear determination of the driver and the crew. This justifies that motivation towards the advancement of anything is superior to the advancement itself.