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CLONING THE EXTINCT?
It’s possible that a baby wooly mammoth carcass that Russian scientists discovered
in 2007 – which has laid frozen for over 40,000 years -- may be able to be cloned.
Someday soon. Wow.
Until now, cloning frozen tissue was impossible because cells burst open during freezing,
which damages the DNA.
The only exception to this is when cryoprotectant chemicals are used to preserve the DNA BEFORE
the tissue is frozen…
…which, obviously, doesn’t apply to the baby wooly mammoth.
But recently, Japanese scientist Teruhiko Wakayama and his colleagues were able to clone
unprotected mice that were frozen for up to 16 years.
They took an egg cell and removed the nucleus, then put in nuclear material from the frozen
mouse, then stimulated the resulting cell…
…which began dividing as if it had been fertilized.
…Which leads scientists to think that cloning new animals from frozen samples of wooly mammoth
tissue may be within reach.
Hmm…are we one step closer to a real-life “Jurassic Park?”