Should We Clone Neanderthals?

March/April 2010

The scientific, legal, and ethical obstacles If Neanderthals ever walk the earth again, the primordial ooze from which they will rise is an emulsion of oil, water, and DNA capture beads engineered in the laboratory of 454 Life Sciences in Branford, Connecticut. Over the past 4 years those beads have been gathering tiny fragments of DNA from samples of dissolved organic materials, including pieces of Neanderthal bone. Genetic sequences have given paleoanthropologists a new line of evidence for testing ideas about the biology of our closest extinct relative.

The first studies of Neanderthal DNA focused on the genetic sequences of mitochondria, the microscopic organelles that convert food to energy within cells. In 2005, however, 454 began a collaborative project with the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, Germany, to sequence the full genetic code of a Neanderthal woman who died in Croatia's Vindija cave 30,000 years ago. As the Neanderthal genome is painstakingly sequenced, the archaeologists and biologists who study it will be faced with an opportunity that seemed like science fiction just 10 years ago. They will be able to look at the genetic blueprint of humankind's nearest relative and understand its biology as intimately as our own.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/896de71a284c.gif[/atsimg]

The 50,000-year-old skull of a Neanderthal from the site of Shanidar in Iran (top) has a prominent browridge and more projecting face than the 40,000-year-old Homo sapiens skull found at Pestera cu Oase in Romania. (Erik Trinkaus

www.archaeology.org...

Cannot believe that they want to clone Neanderthals, what exactly would they do with them if successful? More then likely keep them locked away and do all kinds of tests on them. Scientist today thing they are gods, although if they are able to do it maybe it is meant to be or they wouldn't have the capability.

They are using hundreds of thousands of DNA sequences at a time. Genome-sequencing technology is advancing at a rate comparable to computer processing power, if they can do that it seems they can get all the information they may need without going as far as cloning. There is also a chance that they have done this already, it makes me wonder if they would tell us.

reply to post by Aquarius1


yes! they are not humans. I see no ethical issues. Lets clone them and study them if we can.

I don't think that we should clone any extinct species. It's irrational to revive evolutionary dead-ends, IMO.

I'm sure that immunologists, and any number of other specialized scientists, on the other hand, probably have a laundry list of justifications for wanting to do so.

I guess if we cross this bridge, as a culture, only hindsight will tell if it was a wise choice or not.

find a nice big uninhabited island and clone the guys...let em develop untouched by modern man...and just observe from afar to see how they would progress.

all for it.

just need to make sure the ecosystem is balanced...enough genetic diversity to not retard the strain, enough life on the island to where it can easily handle the guys being there, etc.

I agree with the poster above me. But I would love to see how Neanderthals would react in today's world.

reply to post by SaturnFX

Sure. First it starts with, "Hey, look at the guys with the heavy unibrow."
Then the screaming starts.

You're talking about "observing" creatures which could likely be as intelligent as humans.

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by SaturnFX

 

Sure. First it starts with, "Hey, look at the guys with the heavy unibrow."
Then the screaming starts.

You're talking about "observing" creatures which could likely be as intelligent as humans.

edit on 10/3/2010 by Phage because: (no reason given)

and?

I did say seperate on a isolated island...let them pick up where they left off...living in caves and gnawing on berries...in a few hundred (or thousand) years, they may get the tech to slap something together and see what is beyond the ocean world they live on.

Could be a fascinating study...and hey, its not like they will complain about it once they realize whats going on...being they were initially extinct and whatnot.

reply to post by SaturnFX

Oh great. Then they develop nuclear weapons and we have a full scale interspecies war which they might win. Then what will you say Mr. "we'll just watch 'em and see what they do"?

Really though, the neanderthals have been a fascination of mine for a long time. Though it could be more an interest in early man in general.

I think the moral issues preclude attempting such a thing though. "Playing god" is too fitting a description.

reply to post by Phage


Its an animal...just an animal. cloning animals out of extinction = good.

there should be no religious uproar about cloning neandertals...because..well, they aren't man and therefore who cares. So, it simply comes down to us simply doing it.


and in regards to them developing nukes...well, we took em out once, we will take em out again if they get silly.


Actually, wasn't there some research done suggesting neanderthals didn't go extinct but rather just interbred with homo sapians and made french people?

add:Yep, they did. Link - neanderthal gene found in some humans

reply to post by Hefficide


I have to disagree. We keep many evolutionary dead ends (ie pandas, gorillas, etc) in zoos and try to preserve them for as long as possible. I feel the human curiosity/quest to understand and study the mystery of life will eventually drive us to clone every creature we can, if we have the technology.

Originally posted by snusfanatic
reply to post by Hefficide

 

I have to disagree. We keep many evolutionary dead ends (ie pandas, gorillas, etc) in zoos and try to preserve them for as long as possible. I feel the human curiosity/quest to understand and study the mystery of life will eventually drive us to clone every creature we can, if we have the technology.

Yep

Jurassic Park was not just a neat movie, but a likely future venture...hopefully without all the broken cages and Jeff Goldblum mathing them to death.

Originally posted by snusfanatic
reply to post by Hefficide

 

I have to disagree. We keep many evolutionary dead ends (ie pandas, gorillas, etc) in zoos and try to preserve them for as long as possible. I feel the human curiosity/quest to understand and study the mystery of life will eventually drive us to clone every creature we can, if we have the technology.

But are these examples evolutionary dead ends or are they viable species which have been threatened by human interference in their environments and populations?

They are humans.

Homo Sapiens Neanderthalensis. Anyone claiming otherwise with finding their DNA in ours is a racist masquerading as an academic.

They were human enough that all of you who aren't from Africa are carrying some of them in you.

My main concerns are for the person created. This isn't multiple people - this is ONE person they are looking at.

They need a family. They may not function like modern humans in terms of intelligence. If some of the autism community is correct, they may function like a high functioning autistic. And how likely are they to die of modern viruses? Are immunizations enough? It seems that they developed into adults faster - that could be a ball of trouble. How about sexuality? There will be only one of them - how are you going to stop that behaviour, and it certainly isn't ethical to do so. That leads to what if they want to marry? Have children? Go to the PTA.



And an island won't do it. There is no group, no matter how isolated, who doesn't in some way interact with the wider world. Anyone in that field knows it, and anyone thinking otherwise is fooling themselves.

There would be no "isolated" island. People of modern human origin will begin a mass assault to get there. For reasons of curiosity, celebrity, religious, political, gender, humanitarian, racial, identity issues, just to name several off the top of my head.

You couldn't do enough to isolate an "island" of people from the rest of us.

Originally posted by Hefficide

Originally posted by snusfanatic
reply to post by Hefficide

 

I have to disagree. We keep many evolutionary dead ends (ie pandas, gorillas, etc) in zoos and try to preserve them for as long as possible. I feel the human curiosity/quest to understand and study the mystery of life will eventually drive us to clone every creature we can, if we have the technology.

But are these examples evolutionary dead ends or are they viable species which have been threatened by human interference in their environments and populations?

They weren't threatened - they were subsumed.

reply to post by SaturnFX


Everyone not of African origin have their genes to some degree. I'd have to go look again 2-4% I believe. Nuclear DNA.

reply to post by SaturnFX

Do "animals" ceremonially bury their dead?
Do "animals" make jewelry?

reply to post by Aeons


My remark was about pandas and gorillas, not neanderthal.

Originally posted by Hefficide
reply to post by Aeons

 

My remark was about pandas and gorillas, not neanderthal.

Oh - Well I suppose we haven`t subsumed them yet.

reply to post by Aquarius1


Hello Aquarius1,

Here is a free e-book by a friend of mine Jeff Inlo that describes this phenomena on a stellar scale.
It is an interesting read as they put a "cloned" species on another uninhabited planet, not just an island for
"observation".
Check it out, let me know what you think of this experiment.

www.sitelane.com...

Thanks and 73's,
Tom (KC5ILU)

Cloning Neanderthals is too easy to falsify.
Starting with something like mammoth seems more reasonable