At yesterday's TEDxDeExtinction event, University of New South Wales paleontologist Michael Archer announced the advance by the so-called Lazarus project. The bizarre gastric-brooding frog, the female of which incubated the prejuvenile stages of its offspring in its stomach, disappeared from the wild in 1979 and went extinct a few years later. However, Adelaide frog researcher Mike Tyler froze specimens of the frog prior to its extinction, leaving the door open for the species' possible resurrection.
Scientists extracted DNA from a frozen frog specimen, and employed somatic-cell nuclear transfer, the same process used to clone still-living animals. The team took eggs from the distantly related great barred frog, deactivated that frog's DNA with UV light, and inserted the gastric-brooding frog's DNA into the eggs. The cells inside the eggs began dividing, becoming blastulas. The embryos died after a few days, long before developing into tadpoles, but DNA tests confirmed that they were gastric-brooding frog embryos, and Archer says they have high hopes for seeing this frog up and hopping soon.
...They named it the Lazarus project...now I want to play Mass Effect 2 again.And now I'm thinking of the Lazarus Pit.
...They named it the Lazarus project...now I want to play Mass Effect 2 again.
...They named it the Lazarus project...now I want to play Mass Effect 2 again.And now I'm thinking of the Lazarus Pit.
You are forgetting guys the best dead animal (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Allosaurus_BW.jpg)
Allosaurus is actually my favorite animal, but as no dinosaur DNA has ever been found (or is likely to be found) I doubt there's any way to bring one back to life.
Allosaurus is actually my favorite animal, but as no dinosaur DNA has ever been found (or is likely to be found) I doubt there's any way to bring one back to life.
Never say never.
Allosaurus is actually my favorite animal, but as no dinosaur DNA has ever been found (or is likely to be found) I doubt there's any way to bring one back to life.
Never say never.
Justin Biebersaur
...Assuming the DNA of a neanderthal was available, would they be able to grow one in a human or something? :o
This just can't end well. Hasn't anybody watched Jurassic Park!?
the next step is figuring out how to "customize" DNA to basically build our own genetic material. That opens the door to unbelievable possibilities regarding cloning.LASER BEARSHARKOSAURUS REX
...Assuming the DNA of a neanderthal was available, would they be able to grow one in a human or something? :o
A little while back there was a scientist who was offering cash to a woman who would volunteer to gestate the first Neanderthal fetus and deliver it by C-section.
I think that as science improves, the viability of literally returning extinct species to life will become a reality. After managing to get something extinct to actually survive to adulthood, the next step is figuring out how to "customize" DNA to basically build our own genetic material. That opens the door to unbelievable possibilities regarding cloning.
And actually, both of those parts are steadily progressing. The hard part is sequencing the genome of what you want; DNA doesn't last more than a million years usually, and you need a parent species anyways (at least until we're able to totally customize biology and build our own eggs to fertilize). Dodo? Pretty easy if we can find DNA. Dinosaurs? Not so much.
I can see this being used to bring back delicious species, such as the Beluga and the dodo.
You know how birds are said to be some of the closest descendants to dinosaurs? Well I remember seeing a program on the Science Channel or something that explored this. One thing they did was take a chicken egg and they changed the DNA so that certain "switches" where either flipped on or off so as to achieve the result they wanted. As the embryo grew it was observed to be behaving as predicted in that it grew a longer tail, teeth like structures on the beak, and other traits that made it look very dinosaur like. They ended up destroying it before it was close to hatching. I've always wondered what would happen if such a creature was allowed to grow until it hatched... We need to use a ostrich egg next time though.
"Cloning dinosaurs" will probably turn out a lot like the Jurassic Park novel: Wu notes to Hammond that they're not REALLY cloning dinosaurs, but rather making new monsters that have never existed in nature that just seem like dinosaurs. While actually bringing a dinosaur back to life is extremely difficult, creating a custom species that greatly resembles dinosaurs is much easier.
This just can't end well. Hasn't anybody watched Jurassic Park!?I don't watch crap. :P
Sure. A bunch of carnivorous and highly dangerous monsters are built without government approval, but remain strictly under control and restricted to a single pair of islands until the protagonists break them out of captivity and intentionally sabotage the efforts of the only competent people around in the name of "wildlife preservation" until a T-Rex is unleashed on San Francisco.
Allosaurus is actually my favorite animal, but as no dinosaur DNA has ever been found (or is likely to be found) I doubt there's any way to bring one back to life.
Never say never.
Justin Biebersaur
You mean Bondosaur.
Allosaurus is actually my favorite animal, but as no dinosaur DNA has ever been found (or is likely to be found) I doubt there's any way to bring one back to life.
Never say never.
Justin Biebersaur
You mean Bondosaur.
Or a strange hybrid of the two.
It burns...the horror, it burns.Shield your eyes!
I'll just put on my trusty goggles...
Hey, does that guy in the lower right corner has blue skin and a ligthsaber?
I know the movie.
It was a competing film and they had to fight with EON for a while to get it made. The movie has Bond using a Walther P5, probably because the use of PPK would have been too close to the "official" Bond movies or something.
But seriously, look at that guy: Blue skin, lightsaber, no pants. What the heck?
Justin Beiber has a big head.
I think this cloning thing is kinda cool yet it's scary. I wonder how long it will be before we have a Gattacca style society.
this sucker i'd like to see brought back though. the pyrenean ibex died out in 2000, and they were trying to clone the last living female. might be something to be done?