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A TEAM OF scientists from Harvard has said they might soon be able to create an elephant-woolly mammoth hybrid by combining their DNA with the gene-editing technology Crispr.
At the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting in Boston this week, the team introduced their idea for a ”an elephant with a number of mammoth traits”, which they believe could become a reality in the next two years.
Scientists have wanted to bring back woolly mammoths for a long time. The reason they went extinct in the first place is a subject of much debate — nobody really knows if we were to blame or not. Either way, they’re a firm favourite for de-extinction and researchers now believe they could be roaming around a few years from now.
This “mammophant” would have features of a mammoth such as long, shaggy hair and adaptations to the cold like subcutaneous fat and specially adapted blood.
The project started in 2015, and since then the team has been able to add more and more edits into elephant DNA – from 15 to 45.
“We’re working on ways to evaluate the impact of all these edits and basically trying to establish embryogenesis in the lab,” leader of the research team Professor George Church told The Guardian.
While reintroducing mammoths is a passion project for some, and there’s an argument it could help preserve the endangered Asian elephant in a hybrid form, others aren’t so sure.
Mark Carnall, the Life Collections Manager at Oxford University Museum of Natural History, tweeted his concerns:
Many, including Carnall, think the ethical and ecological implications of bringing back major species have not been fully thought through.
For example, mammoths were social animals like elephants, but there’s no way of knowing how a herd of elephants would welcome a mammophant.
There’s also the possibility they could destroy native species and disrupt the ecosystem in ways that haven’t been considered.
The reasons behind bringing them back are shaky too, considering mammoths haven’t been around on Earth for 4,500 years after being killed off by climate change or hunting.
It’s a massive decision whether an animal will be an asset to the environment or if it being reintroduced is just a means of clearing our conscience.
But this hasn’t deterred the Harvard team which hopes to eventually grow the hybrid embryo within an artificial womb.
The de-extinction of these animals is more possible than ever before thanks to sophisticated gene editing techniques like Crispr. It’s also made easier by the fact mammoth DNA has been unusually well preserved because specimens have been frozen in Siberian ice for thousands of years.
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Hopefully people don’t take too many liberties, and we can all move together to keep this virus suppressed, while returning to some sort of normality.
@Mark Cooper: are you related to the gooch
@Mark Cooper: My sentiments exactly!
, who actually is this phase for, is it for the decent people who tried to comply with the law is it for the black lives matter people who don’t seem to comply with the law. it would be nice to have one law or rule everybody complied with. Its not going to happen is it because there’s nobody in forcing anything.
@Braonain Proinseas: Are you implying the “black lives matter people” aren’t decent? Cuz fighting for justice and raising awareness of inhumanity in Ireland and the US seems pretty decent to me. I think a better choice of words would’ve been “compliant people” and “protestors” (since everyone should be a black lives matter person).
@Dino: No, I’m talking about the inhumanity and injustice of systematic racism that has oppressed people of colour. And the cases in Carrigaline/Limerick, as unfortunate and horrible as they are, have nothing to do with race. You’re clearly trying to make my comment into something it’s not.
@Dino: unfortunately I can’t post a screenshot here but if you check out Twitter you will find a post from the boy’s friend who confirms that it was not a race related attack.
@Olive McClaw: The point as you well know is that there are other ways of protesting than breaking government restrictions and putting lives at risk here. Playing on use of words dilutes your argument
@Olive McClaw: black lives matter only when it’s a white person against a black person, where are all these protests when the blacks kill each other ?? Most of these protests were hijacked by sc**bag rioters. Why was is ok to get together in their 1000’s to protest and it’s not ok to have more than 10 people at a funeral ??
@Olive McClaw: well said.
@Olive McClaw: flutes,flutes disregarding everyone elses rights as they deem theirs to be on a higher plain,yup,flutes would work equally well ?
@Mary Downes Montcho: if it was a group of white kids attacking a black lad,you would do well to sell that theory ?
@Olive McClaw: it’s such a pity olive we Irish couldn’t do that and show our humanity and raise awareness of this issue when young white Irish lads died in suspicious circumstances in Irish police custody the Terrance wheelocks, the johner moloneys and so many more if I start naming them my comment will be deleted again look them up.
No one cares because they had criminal records an they are quiet simply “white”..
i don’t know why we have to keep apologising and felling sorry, black ppl are not oppressed I havnt seen it in my lifetime and I doubt any of the BLM have had to endure any oppression in there lifetime. Making them feel like they have did you see what they were writing in there WhatsApp about the whites stab them an rob there white sl*ts.
But no story about that.
@Mary Downes Montcho: unfortunately I can’t post a screen shot here but anyone that’s on FB can find the BLM WhatsApp group messages i suggest you find it if you haven’t already and have a look at what they were saying and tell me it’s not about race.
@Olive McClaw: OK but if it was a recorded attack of a load of white lads attacking a prone black lad on the ground with a Snapchat name of whatever the white alternative name of “niggz” or whatever it was do you think that a lot of people, media included wouldn’t paint it as a racial attack? Especially in the last few weeks. It it undeniably thuggery but it could easily be construed as racist.
@Olive McClaw: It has everything to do with race when young black men are attacked by white men but not when young black men take out their anger and attack young white men? Give over you bald faced hypocrite
@The Boss: I understand your sentiment and awareness should be made about these crimes too. White people have faced oppression but the difference is it was never because of the colour of their skin. Irish people were oppressed because they were Irish not because they were white. And believe me, oppression definitely exists even if you haven’t seen it. Research it, learn the history as you’ve learned about Irish history. Then you might understand. And when we say Black Lives Matter, we’re not saying all black people are perfect human beings. They should be subject to the same judicial system that everyone else is. If they commit a crime they should punished like everyone else is. But by no means should their crimes and anti social behaviour be representative of the entire black community.
@Alan: Yes, I agree. The protests were badly organised. But my point was that they were protesting for a great cause, perhaps not in the best way, but it’s unfair to call them indecent.
@AL T: The protests are for clearly racist agenda attacks on people of colour. When black people attack each other, there isn’t a racist agenda. When a black person attacks a white person there can be a racist agenda but that’s usually not the case. When a white person attacks a black person it more than likely has a racist agenda. And in America, it always seems to have a racist agenda. I agree with you regarding the protests, they could have been executed better or done another way. Not sure why you’re mentioning the rioters, there were no riots in Ireland. And many of the riots have been shown to be started by the police themselves in America.
@Olive McClaw: precisely what I’m implying
@Olive McClaw: “When a black person attacks a white person there can be a racist agenda but that’s usually not the case. When a white person attacks a black person it more than likely has a racist agenda. And in America, it always seems to have a racist agenda.” <- this is what is wrong with these protests, people get attacked all the time and there us just as much racism in the black community as the white, we are all people, we are all the same and we all deserve to be treated the same! You just presume a racist agenda when it's white on black like the killing of floyd which it now looks like had nothing to do with racism since the cop in question is married to an asian woman. Are black men in America more likely to be involved in violent crime than white men? Yes is the answer if you take the proportion of white males involved in crime compared to black males. Is this likely resultant from a culture and a socio economic problem in america? Yes probably but that doesn't make people racist to be fearful of young black men dressed like thugs, it makes them just as correct as they are to be fearful of gangs of young white men dressed like thugs the same as we are here on the streets of Dublin, Cork, galway l, limerick or any other city/large urban area.
@Mary Downes Montcho: You don’t think there was any racial anger in that man’s decision to stab a prone white man on the ground repeatedly? You’re having a laugh surely. But hey thats just what it looks like the same as the floyd incident. Its OK to jump all over that rare incident but not this one as we don’t want to be accusing a black person in the wrong as that could be perceived as racism?
I’m 30 odd kms from my mother’s house and I’m going to see her and I don’t care. My family and I have been holed up and doing our best to stay home and within the restrictions since the kids finished school.
@Fergal O’Hagan: so why change what your doing now. My family have been doing exactly the same thing , my parents are 23kms away and my in-laws are 2hr drive away. We’ve missed them but just because the restrictions have eased and yes some people will take the piss doesn’t mean you should just throw the towel. Sadly not everyone has common sense but If we all just give up then we’ll be back at phase 1 again.
@Fergal O’Hagan: So you pick up thevirus and pass iit to yout mother, very sensible
@Fergal O’Hagan: well if shes in the same county, ur fine….all within the rules.
While I didn’t necessarily agree with the direction our government took in dealing with this crises I followed all the advice to the T. Well feck it now, I’m not in the vulnerable category and nobody in my family is so if thousands of people can go off and do their own thing then I’m not going to bother listening to the advice either. I’m having a big house party next weekend with 30 invited over for homemade pizza and a few beers and some decent socialising for the first time in months. Good luck to the rest of the country but I’m not going to be the fool playing by the rules any more for the common good.
@Dino: so because some people went out and peacefully protested in the name of social justice while wearing masks you’re going to spit your dummy out and have a party. Fair play to you
@Dino:
Those type of bars and grills are down for the moment, Dino.
@Dino: An ruin the good work that you have done and oma=an and bitched your way through
@Dino: what do you want ? A Gold Medal
@Dino: is that an invitation??
@Lisa Quinn: not quiet got around psychologically to inviting people i don’t know well yet but looking forward to getting back to near normal.
@Stephen Brady: It wasn’t some people it was thousands and it wasn’t prevented by our government. They shut down businesses causing people to lose their livelihoods, they shut down all social outlets too in the name of public health and we all stupidly went along with them as it obviously isn’t that serious if they are willing to let thousands congregate for a meaningless protest against some imagined injustice in another part of the world!
@Dino: yah eeediot
@Stephen Brady: it wasn’t me who changed the emphasis on the importance of collective sacrifice to try and deal with the virus?
@Dino: yeeediot
Same for all who are flaunting the rules.
@ed w: Exactly!! Anxious times for people with routine cancer screenings all suspended. Extremely anxious time for people who already had battles with cancer(s) previously to be left in Limbo this past 3 months – which will of course create another waiting list backlog…something that has become so wrongfully commomplace throughout our public health system will now also affect the private system…how long will the ‘catch-up’ phase go on for?? The whole point of cancer screening is early detection…timely diagnosis is the whole aim of ANY screening programme. Even more so for ‘surveillance’ diagnostics for cancer patients in remission!!
You have the right to catch covid and kill the relatives of your thirty guests in a fit of pique. Grow up!
cancer screenings ??
Good grief ….
What about all the commuters coming into work tomorrow? 14 on a bus from Co. Meath. Grow up.
@Linda Kennedy: Yep afraid so. But if communters wat to catchthe virus pack them in tight
@Gary Kearney: and what if you’re commuting for a medical appointment ? Should I too catch the virus cuz I’ve to get a bus?. Christ they didnt mention by phase 2 how bitter people would get.
Is Dublin a county, or do they mean, DCC, Fingal, DnL-R, SD?
People still need to be sensible and not hit the shops with the whole clan behind them..
have your say