Cloning Extinct Species: Hello Jurassic Park?
The book is a classic.
The movie was a blockbuster.
But are we ready for scientists to clone a real-life Jurassic Park?
Significant genomic accomplishments in the past year have increased the possibility of bringing back to life two extinct creatures: woolly mammoths and Neanderthals.
“I laughed when Steven Spielberg said that cloning extinct animals was inevitable,” said an expert on ancient DNA who consulted on Jurassic Park. “But I’m not laughing anymore, at least about mammoths. This is going to happen. It’s just a matter of working out the details.”
The genetic details of the woolly mammoth—yielded from carcasses buried in the Siberian permafrost—have been painstakingly decoded by scientists who have now unlocked 70% of the animal’s genome, including much of the data needed to clone one.
The genome of the Neanderthal—driven to extinction 30,000 years ago—has been completely reconstructed. According to a leading genome researcher at Harvard Medical School, a Neanderthal could be brought to life using current technology for about $30 million.
But questions of ethics and responsibility nag at the nucleus of changing science fiction to non-fiction.
If we cloned our relatives the Neanderthals, asked one expert, “Are you going to put them in Harvard or in a zoo?” And woolly mammoths, notes a paleontologist, were highly social animals. “Cloning would give you a single animal, which would live all alone in a park, a zoo, or a lab—not in its native habitat, which no longer exists. You’re basically creating a curio.”
A science writer asked his readers, “Should we try to resurrect a Neanderthal? And if so, what kind of precautions should we take, and what kind of lives should we help them lead?” Many respondents expressed concern about a cloned Neanderthal’s quality of life. “What kind of life is that?” asked one, to be “raised from birth with the knowledge that they exist solely for the sake of a scientific experiment.”
“They’d have more important lessons to teach us than what we’d have to teach them,” wrote another, worried that our egos “would not see the wisdom in a species who are perhaps uglier, slower, and clumsier than us…They’d be miserable. Leave ‘em be.”
“How about making another Einstein or Bach or Rembrandt?” suggested another. “Wouldn’t that be more challenging and more scientifically useful?”
Tell us what you think: Is cloning an extinct animal responsible?
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Way to rip off National Geographic
Thanks for citing your sources. The quote you used from the scientist about laughing at Jurassic Park was directly from an issue of National Geographic.
The exact quote from the article:
“I laughed when Steven Spielberg said that cloning extinct animals was inevitable,” says Hendrik Poinar of McMaster University, an authority on ancient DNA who served as a scientific consultant for a film about the making of Jurassic Park. “But I’m not laughing anymore, at least about mammoths. This is going to happen. It’s just a matter of working out the details.”
If you’re going to blog about responsibility, maybe you should be responsible yourself and either cite your direct quotes or not use them at all.
Natalie Cox | 3 months, 3 weeks ago
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either you live or die
Life is not only a result of living. Life is a quality of life.
In general terms what do we learn by cloning a extinct species. We learn about that species. we learn about the genome and in fact all genomes how to manipulate it safely. This would result in the improvement of all lives on this world. What about the species that we this century have made extinct. Do they deserve to live. I recognise that a Neanderthal is not a monkey, but in this perspective the monkey is slower and less intelligent so should we exterminate all them because they are not us? That animal like us lived and most likely we as humans directly killed them until they were gone. What responsibility do we have to them. LIFE. not stuffed shapes in a museum.
Further in some future where the genome can be controlled and defined where the result is known before it is grown. The result of a modified life will be a tool for our use. What cost is their to do this, will this cause destruction like a atomic bomb, open sterile pits called strip mines, citys of concrete and steel? a tree grown to be a house, a car that you ride to work, genetic manipulation is better that what we do now. get you heads out of the bible and your asses and think for yourself.
personally i have a desire to get to know a Neanderthal. I would speculate that the roots of our religions come from them.
robert walker | 3 months, 3 weeks ago
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We should clone extinct animals
We can learn a lot from these magnificent beasts and develop new inventions based on their existence. The Past effects the future so if we learn about the past we can change the future or know why things happen in the order they happen. Cloning was a giant leap in the field of genetics and we can go farther by learning about genetics in creatures before our time. =)
Wats ur issue | 3 months, 1 week ago
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This is bad
Im researching for a project and yah no the thing about Neranderthals or summat its from another article i read already! Cite your sources much? lol
Your mom | 2 months, 3 weeks ago
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Clone the mammal-like reptiles
I that would be so cool if they can clone extinct animals and if they clone Dimetrodon, Lystrosaurus, and Gorgonops, they would put them in a zoo.
K.W. | 2 months, 3 weeks ago
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Cloning Extinct Species: Hello Jurassic Park?
From the movie the statement was made that they used the work of other and were so convinced they could never stop to think if they should. These animals did not die because of something “Man” did but by nature and the circle of life
Deborah Stelzle | 1 month, 2 weeks ago
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Creation of an Extinct Lab Rat!!!!
Who’s got two thumbs and gives this idea two thumbs down? This guy!!
I think that we should not stick our noses into the science of bringing an extinct creature back to life! God has made the mammoth and neanderthal extinct for a reason and I believe that that is what is best.
Don’t get me wrong, I would love to see them in real life, the prehistoric past has always fasinated me. I just think it would be stupid for us to waste time and money on a project like this.
Scientists should be very proud of their discoveries, findings and knowledge, however, the cloning of either of these creatures would be terrible. Everyone knows that they would just be new/old experiments and lab rats. Who would want that type of life? Needles, tests, and studies for their entire natural life! Not me, thats for sure!!!
REST IN PEICE!!
Shawn Moore | 4 weeks ago
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retired
let the dead lie / help the living /cure todays problems not bring up past problems
john ritch | 4 weeks ago
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neanderthal cloning
Anything that science is able to clone-should be considered to be
or notfor the common good. If we were given the knowledge to clone. then there must be a reason for this knowledge to be useful. Certainly we can be responsible for what we produce-good or bad. I am in favor of cloning.Frances Martinez | 4 weeks ago
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contractor
I THINK THAT NORMAL ETHICS AND MORAL CODE SHOULD SOME TIMES BE IGNORED. WHAT IF WE WERE THE EXTINCT SPECIES AND SOME OTHER EVOVLED SPECIES, TERESTRIAL OR EXTRATERESTIAL, DISCOVERED OUR REMAINS AND REANIMATED US? MOST PEOPLE WOULD BE OKAY WITH THAT. LIKE IT OR NOT OUR SPECIES WILL EXPLORE EVERY OPPURTUNITY WE ARE PRESENTED WITH. I THINK LIFE’S VERY SURVIVAL IS DEPEDENT ON THIS TRAIT. IT MAY BE HOW WE CAME TO BE AND HOW LIFE WILL CONTINUE AFTER OUR EARTH MOTHER HAS REACHED HER END.B
bryan beck | 4 weeks ago
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