Scientists clone extinct frog – Jurassic Park here we come?

[wtmusic]

"In 1983, a genuine freak of nature was lost to science. The gastric-brooding frog – Rheobatrachus silus – was native to the rainforests of Queensland, Australia and best known for giving birth through its mouth, having incubated its offspring in its stomach. But habitat loss and disease saw the species officially declared extinct.

Until now. Scientists in Australia have announced that they have brought the frog's genome "back to life". Employing a cloning technology called somatic cell nuclear transfer, they used tissue obtained from samples of a frog kept in a freezer since the 1970s to implant a "dead" cell nucleus into a fresh egg from a similar species.

None of the embryos created survived for more than a few days, but the "Lazarus Project" team believe their work is a landmark moment for the new science of "de-extinction" – the artificial recreation of lost species that featured fictionally in the Jurassic Park films. "Now we have fresh cryo-preserved cells of the extinct frog to use in future cloning experiments," says team leader Professor Mike Archer of the University of New South Wales, in Sydney. "We're increasingly confident that the hurdles ahead are technological and not biological, and that we will succeed. Importantly, we've demonstrated already the great promise this technology has as a conservation tool when hundreds of the world's amphibian species are in catastrophic decline."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/shortcuts/2013/mar/18/scientists-clone-extinct-frog

The flip side of this coin, of course, is we could theoretically keep killing rhinos for their horns...and just whip up a new batch, when we run out.

[dipsydoodle]

1. Wonder if it will go

[Cary]

2. Our technology is clearly killing us.

If we have a path to ensure our survival it seems to me that it is through even better technology.

Where we might stumble or even fall down, IMHO, is not so much with a Jurassic Park scenario (which was hardly new since Jurassic Park was pretty much the same plot as Westworld which surely wasn't original either) but rather a Brave New World.

[stuntcat]

3. so maybe after the extinction bottleneck of the next few decades some scientists will be able..

Last edited Mon Mar 18, 2013, 02:39 PM - Edit history (2)

some scientists will be able to bring back some of the species who'll be wiped out soon? Well I hope so, because IMO that's the only hope humans have of justifying our existence from now on.. maybe we can wipe out a few less animals

(edit: !)

[Kablooie]

4. So the Neanderthal revival movement has a hope for success.

A U.S. geneticist from Harvard who helped start the Human Genome Project says he's looking for an "adventurous" woman to give birth to a Neanderthal.

Professor George M. Church of Harvard Medical School's genetics department says his plan to bring back members of the extinct species or subspecies closely related to modern humans may not work, but he thinks his Neanderthal bone-sample analysis is complete enough to reconstruct their DNA.

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Geneticist_wants_to_revive_Neanderthals_999.html

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I wonder if the new Neanderthals will be able to give birth through their mouths?