Posted on 03/22/2022 7:13:53 AM PDT by SJackson
A new paper explores how gene-editing technology could be used to bring a species back, but even its authors have concerns about what that could mean.
If Tom Gilbert could bring any extinct animal back to life, he said, it wouldn't be dinosaurs or woolly mammoths or any other megafauna that once roamed the planet. His is a humbler choice: the Christmas Island rat, a species that was wiped out from its island home in the Indian Ocean more than a century ago.
Gilbert, an evolutionary geneticist at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, admitted that his pick may not be the most sensational, but he said it's likely the most feasible with today's gene-editing technology.
In a study published Wednesday in the journal Current Biology, he and his colleagues examined how the Christmas Island rat could be revived, as well as the current limitations to "de-extinction." The research raises big questions about how successful de-extinction efforts can be, which types of animals should be brought back, and the ethical quandaries of tinkering with nature.
"We did this as a proof of principle that you might not get back what you think you're going to get," Gilbert said.
The researchers focused on how the gene-editing tool CRISPR could be used to alter the genetic blueprint of a closely related living species to essentially re-create one that went extinct. This method of editing genomes for the purposes of de-extinction was most famously pioneered by Harvard University biologist George Church, who has spent nearly a decade trying to splice the DNA of Asian elephants with woolly mammoth genes in hopes of resurrecting the extinct, shaggy-haired beasts.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
Why not do it to something useful like Mermaids? /s
I’d prefer they brought back velociraptors...and released a herd of them into Sacramento.
The only thing more lame than de-extincting a species of rat would be bringing back an extinct species of cockroach. Apparently, back in the Jurassic period, they were the size of a small car.
1. Dodo
2 Thylacine
There’s your green personal transportation solution!
A really really giant cockroach! You can call it the roach coach!
we don’t need any more rats.
A really really giant cockroach! You can call it the roach coach!
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LOL!
I’ve seen this movie.
It never ends well.
A cross between Jurassic Park and Joe's Apartment
Funky towel, baby!!
Yes - what we really need are more rat species. We don’t have enough agricultural and household pests. Maybe generate a few more types of cockroaches and mosquitoes too.
How about a hybrid rat/cockroach/mosquito? Chews holes in walls hides in crevasses, carries plague, and sucks your blood while you’re sleeping?
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Don’t let Fauci hear about this, he’ll start cooking it up in a bio lab.
Lilith Sternen-Crane's idea?
They used to sell Ostrich meat years ago. Never bought any, but it sure looked lean. I remember it was expensive.
Why don’t they bring something back useful, like the Velociraptor and release them in Chicago, New York, Atlanta, San Francisco, Portland, Philly. You get the picture.
Just what planet earth needs...more RATS!/s
This.
I'm no expect, but I think that is photoshopped.
The passenger pigeon!
They don’t seem to have such qualms about tinkering with human genetics.
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