They talkin' about Little Yellow Jacket? Yikes, they'd better be careful....
Posted on 01/08/2009 6:29:35 AM PST by Red Badger
Japanese scientists said Thursday they had successfully cloned the ancestral bull of a luxurious brand of beef, possibly opening the way to distribute cloned beef.
At the start of the Year of the Ox, researchers announced they had kept frozen for 13 years the testicles of a bull named Yasufuku, the progenitor of the expensive Hida-gyu brand of beef in central Gifu prefecture.
The researchers at Kinki University and Gifu's livestock research institute said they had cloned four Yasufuku calves between November 2007 and July 2008, although two of them died afterward.
"Yasufuku's testicles were frozen for a decade without any special treatment," the team said in a statement, calling it a breakthrough as specimens used for cloning are usually preserved carefully.
Japan has a variety of beef marketed as high-end. Ranchers sometimes massage the animals or feed them beer while they are being raised for slaughter.
A Japanese government panel is studying the safety of cloned beef and is reportedly leaning towards allowing it. US and European safety authorities last year gave the go-ahead for sales of food from cloned animals.
But the researchers said that for now they planned to use cloned animals to study what kinds of gene and protein structures make tasty beef rather than applying them directly to produce food.
Kinki University said it also hoped to advance an ambitious long-term project -- to restore extinct animals.
"Our dream is to create a mammoth, although it is a big dream," said Kazuhiro Saeki, professor at Kinki University.
To revive the huge Ice Age mammal, researchers would need to find a way to implant a cell nucleus into the egg of an elephant -- the mammoth's closest modern relative -- and then implant it into an elephant's uterus.
I bet our Sarah Palin could take a mammoth down and field dress it it in no time :>)
Are you sure about that?..............
“Yasufuku’s testicles were frozen for a decade...”
Buuuurrrr!
He must’ve been married............
I think they just need DNA and DNA can last a long long time. Many Mammoths are nearly flash frozen in time with food still in their gut, so it seems very possible but not likely.
In this case, Man caused their extinction. You know those idyllic, hunter-gatherer groups that lived in perfect harmony with the environment? (The Indians were doing a good job on the bison too, before the Europeans introduced the horse to America!)
I think the mammoths and mastodons should be restored. As long as they're kept away from human population centers, I don't see a problem.
There was a Japanese restaurant in San Rafael named OTAFUKU, I kid you not.
DNA begins to break down fairly rapidly, even when frozen. There have been lots of frozen mammoths found, but none have intact DNA samples that are useable............
” I hear that mammoths taste like chicken”
Nonsense! They taste like Elephant!!
I once had a Kobe beef hanburger. Can’t say it was all that special.
I believe all that’s needed is VIABLE DNA. Just as with the subject bull, there are many frozen mammoths with well preserved tissue.
And for over a decade, some Japanese scientist has been hanging out in bars using “I have the testicles of a bull named Yasufuku” as his pickup line.
They don’t need live cells, just intact DNA that can be amplified and spliced into elephant cells. Weren’t you guys paying attention during “Jurassic Park?”
They talkin' about Little Yellow Jacket? Yikes, they'd better be careful....
Are you sure about that? I point out that biologists have found intact DNA in the bones of Neanderthals, that has proven that they were cousins of modern man, not ancestors.
Well preserved tissue does not mean well preserved DNA, unfortunately. I guessing that the bull’s SPERM cells were frozen in his frozen testicles, in liquid nitrogen at a couple hundred degrees below zero (b.p. = 77 K = -196 °C = -321 °F), which is way different than the frozen tundra, even in Siberia or Green Bay..........
Means it is alive!!!
This announcement should be sent to the guy who was hanging, for 15 or 20 nminutes upside down and butt naked from the chait lift in Vail (Blue Sky Basin) last week. He even made O’Reily last night!
Here is the link: http://www.myfoxcolorado.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=8202446&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1
Naked Skier OK After Fall Through Vail Chairlift
Last Edited: Tuesday, 06 Jan 2009, 2:47 PM MST
Created: Tuesday, 06 Jan 2009, 2:47 PM MST
A skier falls through the Blue Sky Basin Chairlift last Friday losing his pants. Photos posted on smokinggun website. Pics were given to the site by skiiers. SideBar
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Skier Falls Through Chairlift
VAIL - A skier was uninjured after falling through a raised chairlift seat in Blue Sky Basin at Vail Resort Friday.
The man, 48, was caught on the chair and was suspended for approximately seven minutes. His fall through the chair snagged his pants leaving the man naked while hanging upside down.
Lift operators immediately stopped the lift and Vail Ski Patrol was called to the scene.
Lift mechanics were able to reverse the lift approximately 10 to 12 feet, at which point the man was released.
He was not injured.
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