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Let's clone a Mammoth! Why aren't we. Most of nothern megafauna was destroyed anyway (mostly not by humans, but climate change) and we should probably bring it

Let's clone a Mammoth! Why aren't we. Most of nothern megafauna was destroyed anyway (mostly not by humans, but climate change) and we should probably bring it all back. Replace swamps with steppes.

bamboozled 9y ago
To start with, we're wiping out pretty much any natural habitat it might may able to survive in at an alarming rate. Along with that of the polar bear and elephants etc. We seem to also have a pretty good habit of causing countless other species to go extinct, so maybe if we learn to look after the species we have, we can get a new pet? So why invest bringing back something back that will just get made extinct again?
- thriftwy 9y ago
  Nope! Siberia (especially Northern) is basically an uninhabited land. We can surely host a lot of mammoths and wooly rhinos there. Why can't we have a new pet now?
  - wavefunction 9y ago
    Have you been paying any attention to climate change? Y'all are the last sorta folks that deserve ANYTHING. "Me me me."
    - dang 9y ago
      Attacking other users will get your account banned on HN regardless of how good your cause is. We've warned you before, so please don't post like this again.
  - credit_guy 9y ago
    Oh, it's gonna happen. The technology is not quite there yet, but it's advancing rapidly. What do you think, if you can prove you have a decent shot to do it, will YCombinator support you?
  - ktRolster 9y ago
    From what I've read, the hard part isn't cloning, we already have that technology. The hard part is growing it in a womb, where the baby is bathed in various chemicals at various times in its progression, and where the temperature has to be exactly right. Where do you attach the umbilical cord? Do you know what the body temperature of the womb a pregnant mammoth is? Tough question.
    - yorwba 9y ago
      Unless we figure out a way to make artificial wombs, our best bet is just to use an elephant for that. Since mammoths are unlikely to differ much in terms of body temperature and nutrient requirements, the problems you mention won't be much of an issue. More problematic would be immune system incompatibility, which could lead to the mammoth or its elephant mother being killed by the other's immune system response. But I think we have a way to deal with that when it happens in humans, so there should be a workaround. Anyway, first you need to get some cells with mammoth DNA to divide often enough. Before you have that, those other problems don't really matter much.
      - ktRolster 9y ago
        Since mammoths are unlikely to differ much in terms of body temperature and nutrient requirements, the problems you mention won't be much of an issue. Everything I've read suggests it will be a huge issue.
        yorwba 9y ago
        Could you point me to where specifically you have read that? Every article I can find on the internet seems to assume that using an Asian elephant as the surrogate mother will be as easy (i.e. very hard) as if we had living mammoths to carry the clone.
        bamboozled 9y ago
        What will the Elephant think about that?
- ams6110 9y ago
  The vast majority of extinctions happened before humans existed.
  - jfoutz 9y ago
    Hey now, don't go selling humans short. Life has been around for billions of years. Dinosaurs were blundering around for a long time before that asteroid hit. If extinction is the goal we don't have to wait for an asteroid, we can nuke the planet today. I think you're kind of avoiding the point that extinction isn't the goal. Perhaps, for a moment, entertain the idea we need to be a little more cautious wiping out other life. We can probably wipe out quite a bit more, and still be ok. Much like you can loose an eye and still be ok. Probably easier to avoid losing the eye in the first place.
rhaps0dy 9y ago
>Why aren't we. But we are! Well, we want to try. And to stave off climate change, none the less. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/04/pleistocene-park/517779/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/04/pleisto...

Let's clone a Mammoth! Why aren't we. Most of nothern megafauna was destroyed anyway (mostly not by humans, but climate change) and we should probably bring it all back. Replace swamps with steppes.

bamboozled 9y ago

To start with, we're wiping out pretty much any natural habitat it might may able to survive in at an alarming rate. Along with that of the polar bear and elephants etc. We seem to also have a pretty good habit of causing countless other species to go extinct, so maybe if we learn to look after the species we have, we can get a new pet? So why invest bringing back something back that will just get made extinct again?

thriftwy 9y ago
Nope! Siberia (especially Northern) is basically an uninhabited land. We can surely host a lot of mammoths and wooly rhinos there. Why can't we have a new pet now?
- wavefunction 9y ago
  Have you been paying any attention to climate change? Y'all are the last sorta folks that deserve ANYTHING. "Me me me."
  - dang 9y ago
    Attacking other users will get your account banned on HN regardless of how good your cause is. We've warned you before, so please don't post like this again.
- credit_guy 9y ago
  Oh, it's gonna happen. The technology is not quite there yet, but it's advancing rapidly. What do you think, if you can prove you have a decent shot to do it, will YCombinator support you?
- ktRolster 9y ago
  From what I've read, the hard part isn't cloning, we already have that technology. The hard part is growing it in a womb, where the baby is bathed in various chemicals at various times in its progression, and where the temperature has to be exactly right. Where do you attach the umbilical cord? Do you know what the body temperature of the womb a pregnant mammoth is? Tough question.
  - yorwba 9y ago
    Unless we figure out a way to make artificial wombs, our best bet is just to use an elephant for that. Since mammoths are unlikely to differ much in terms of body temperature and nutrient requirements, the problems you mention won't be much of an issue. More problematic would be immune system incompatibility, which could lead to the mammoth or its elephant mother being killed by the other's immune system response. But I think we have a way to deal with that when it happens in humans, so there should be a workaround. Anyway, first you need to get some cells with mammoth DNA to divide often enough. Before you have that, those other problems don't really matter much.
    - ktRolster 9y ago
      Since mammoths are unlikely to differ much in terms of body temperature and nutrient requirements, the problems you mention won't be much of an issue. Everything I've read suggests it will be a huge issue.
      - yorwba 9y ago
        Could you point me to where specifically you have read that? Every article I can find on the internet seems to assume that using an Asian elephant as the surrogate mother will be as easy (i.e. very hard) as if we had living mammoths to carry the clone.
        bamboozled 9y ago
        What will the Elephant think about that?
ams6110 9y ago
The vast majority of extinctions happened before humans existed.
- jfoutz 9y ago
  Hey now, don't go selling humans short. Life has been around for billions of years. Dinosaurs were blundering around for a long time before that asteroid hit. If extinction is the goal we don't have to wait for an asteroid, we can nuke the planet today. I think you're kind of avoiding the point that extinction isn't the goal. Perhaps, for a moment, entertain the idea we need to be a little more cautious wiping out other life. We can probably wipe out quite a bit more, and still be ok. Much like you can loose an eye and still be ok. Probably easier to avoid losing the eye in the first place.

rhaps0dy 9y ago

>Why aren't we. But we are! Well, we want to try. And to stave off climate change, none the less. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/04/pleistocene-park/517779/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/04/pleisto...