I, For One, Welcome Our New, Unfrozen Rodent Clone Overlords!

[Tuckerfan]

Japanese scientists clone mice using cells that had been frozen for 16 years. (http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5goB-DaRAXXrB7yYLnezn0Y1xjqng)Japanese scientists said Tuesday they had created a mouse from a dead cell frozen for 16 years, taking a step in the long impossible dream of bringing back extinct animals such as mammoths.

Scientists at the government-backed research institute Riken used the dead cell of a mouse that had been preserved at minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit) -- a temperature similar to frozen ground.

The scientists hope that the first-of-a-kind research will pave the way to restore extinct animals such as the mammoth.

The findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States.[Ford Prefect] Arthur, this is big league stuff. [/FP]

One can only hope that in the near future, the hills will be alive with the sound of mammoths.

[PraedSt]

How bad can it be?

http://www.ladyrattlerathletics.com/manny.jpg

[darkhunter]

Anyone seen the tv show Primeval? The Mammoth did quite a bit of damage to the cars on the M25....

[Jay200MPH]

You just know they wanted to write "dinosaurs" in there instead of "mammoths." Too bad stupid reality got in the way of that plan.

- J

[tdvance]

The New Scientist version said Japanese are closer to cloning a mammoth in its headline.

That makes a nice "read that again?" or similar, as it's kind of like saying "I climbed a mountain in the southern hemisphere, so I'm now closer to getting to Alpha Centauri".

The frozen mammoths recovered, if I remember right, were closer to being bacterial mass in the shape of a mammoth than actual mammoth tissue.

[mugaliens]

One can only hope that in the near future, the hills will be alive with the sound of mammoths.

The hills, are alive, with the sound, of mam-moths..."

BLLELLEERREEAAAHHH!!!

[megrfl]

How bad can it be?

I wub Mr. Snuffalufagus, or he may be better known as Snuffy.

http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/2879/mrsnuffygg6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[galacsi]

The New Scientist version said Japanese are closer to cloning a mammoth in its headline.

That makes a nice "read that again?" or similar, as it's kind of like saying "I climbed a mountain in the southern hemisphere, so I'm now closer to getting to Alpha Centauri".

The frozen mammoths recovered, if I remember right, were closer to being bacterial mass in the shape of a mammoth than actual mammoth tissue.

Well from memory , I cannot give you a reference , but people in northern Siberia , when they found well enough preserved mammoths they give the flesh to dogs.

[PraedSt]

Well from memory , I cannot give you a reference , but people in northern Siberia , when they found well enough preserved mammoths they give the flesh to dogs.

With a story like that, you've got to give a reference I'm afraid. :)

[PraedSt]

I wub Mr. Snuffalufagus, or he may be better known as Snuffy.

That's right, Snuffy! I'd forgotten about him. I would have linked him otherwise.

I, for one, always believed he existed. ;)

[galacsi]

With a story like that, you've got to give a reference I'm afraid. :)

You never heard about that ?

There is an article in WIKI :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woolly_mammoth


The part about dogs eating Mammoth flesh : To date, thirty-nine preserved bodies have been found, but only four of them are complete. In most cases the flesh shows signs of decay before its freezing and later desiccation. Stories abound about frozen mammoth carcasses that were still edible once defrosted, but the original sources indicate that the carcasses were in fact terribly decayed, and the stench so unbearable that only the dogs accompanying the finders showed any interest in the flesh.[17]

[ravens_cry]

Still, DNA is a rather stable molecule, they can do DNA testing on long dried blood and semen, so here is hoping!

[Tuckerfan]

Ages ago, I read a piece by a guy who suggested that the US import elephants from Africa and allow them to roam free in the Pacific Northwest and parts of California. His reasoning was that for much of the time those forests were evolving, they had mammoths roaming around in them, eating all the vegetation. Bringing elephants to the area would thus help keep the risk of forest fires down, because they'd be eating much of the vegetation that now falls to the floor and piles up to form the kindling for a forest fire.

No idea of how valid his theory is, but it'd be an interesting experiment.

[mugaliens]

With a story like that, you've got to give a reference I'm afraid. :)

'tis true. I've read it myself, from several sources (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=mammoth+flesh+dogs&aq=f&oq=).

Not exactly what I'd call edible, but rather, "well-aged."

[mugaliens]

Ages ago, I read a piece by a guy who suggested that the US import elephants from Africa...

No idea of how valid his theory is, but it'd be an interesting experiment.

Sounds as if it may have merit:

"Fire, elephants, and wildebeest were influential in determining the current character of the Serengeti." - Wikipedia's "Serengeti (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serengeti)" entry

[PraedSt]

You never heard about that? There is an article in WIKI :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woolly_mammoth The part about dogs eating Mammoth flesh

'tis true. I've read it myself, from several sources (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=mammoth+flesh+dogs&aq=f&oq=). Not exactly what I'd call edible, but rather, "well-aged."

Thanks lads. Good, smelly, bed time reading.

[sarongsong]

I, For One, Welcome Our New, Unfrozen Rodent Clone Overlords!Uh-oh, just wait til Humphrey finds out...

[HenrikOlsen]

I wub Mr. Snuffalufagus, or he may be better known as Snuffy.

http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/2879/mrsnuffygg6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Ah, so that's what that (http://ads.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=991122) was about.