Posted on Monday, January 17 2011 @ 21:52 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
Akira Iritani, a professor at Kyoto University, believes new cloning technology will make it possible to bring the woolly mammoth back to life as soon as four years from now. This species has been extinct for 5,000 years but the Japanese scientist believes new developments in cloning technology will finally make it possible to let these creatures walk the earth again. All he needs is a good sample of soft tissue from a frozen mammoth, to extract a healthy nuclei that can be inserted into an African elephant's egg cells.
"Now that the technical problems have been overcome, all we need is a good sample of soft tissue from a frozen mammoth," said Iritani.
To obtain the nuclei, Iritani will travel to Siberia this summer to find samples of mammoth tissue or skin within the permafrost. If he is unable to locate these samples, he plans to ask Russian scientists for samples that they have recovered.
Once Iritani obtains the nuclei, he will insert it into an African elephant's egg cells. The African elephant will be the surrogate mother of the new mammoth.
More details
at DailyTech.
