The Briefing Room
General Category => Science, Technology and Knowledge => Topic started by: Lando Lincoln on February 28, 2013, 09:15:41 pm
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Marin Environmentalist Claims Recreating Extinct Species Is Possible
CBS San Francisco
February 28, 2013
LONG BEACH (CBS SF) – Speaking from the prestigious TED Conference in Long Beach Wednesday, Sausalito activist Stewart Brand said scientists are developing the ability to reassemble an extinct animal’s genome, and even recreate the animal itself.
Brand, who gained fame after he campaigned to have the original NASA space photos of earth published, and subsequently created the Whole Earth Catalog, said Wednesday that “de-extinction” could be used to help restore organisms and habitats damaged human activity, according to a report in the Marin Independent Journal.
More ------> http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2013/02/28/marin-environmentalist-says-we-are-learning-to-reverse-extinction/ (http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2013/02/28/marin-environmentalist-says-we-are-learning-to-reverse-extinction/)
(http://cbssanfran.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/stewart-brand.jpg?w=300)
Lando: What could possibly go wrong?
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Shades of Jurassic Park
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It's utterly impossible. It's not just a matter of having the complete dna sequence, you also need the original egg/womb environment (amongst other things). It actually is possible to "inherit" certain non-genetic characteristics - the term is, generally, epigenetics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epigenetics). Unless you can recreate the entire natal/developmental environment, you cannot recreate an extinct species.