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A major step forward in bringing back the woolly mammoth has been taken by scientists at Harvard University who have inserted DNA from the extinct mammal into the genetic code of an elephant. Geneticists have studied DNA from mammoths which were preserved in Arctic permafrost looking for genes which separated them from elephants, such as hairiness and ear size. They then replicated the genes and spliced them into the genetic code of an elephant where they functioned normally.
George Church, professor of genetics at Harvard University, used a new technique which allows scientists to make precision edits to DNA, replacing sections of elephant DNA with the mammoth genes. "We prioritised genes associated with cold resistance including hairiness, ear size, subcutaneous fat Prof Church told The Sunday Times.
originally posted by: Blackmarketeer
Great, we'll bring back an ice-age creature from extinction just in time for it to drown in the rising sea levels.
originally posted by: OccamsRazor04
It's nice of you to be able to predict the future. How about once perfected the technique may be able to be used to help species near extinction from becoming extinct.
originally posted by: AutumnWitch657
If they say they have successfully combined the DNA doesn't that mean that somewhere there is already an elephant pregnant with a wooly mammoth?
originally posted by: NthOther
originally posted by: OccamsRazor04
It's nice of you to be able to predict the future. How about once perfected the technique may be able to be used to help species near extinction from becoming extinct.
So I suppose the half-mammoth-half-elephant monster is going to go live in half-mammoth-half-elephant monster-land, happily ever after?
No. It's going to spend it's life in a laboratory with fake ficus trees. Men in white coats are going to inject it with chemicals and most likely eventually kill it. It doesn't have a "home" to go to. It can't be simply "released into the wild".