De-extinction Please write a page\'s worth ! This was one of the main science to

Question

De-extinction

Please write a page's worth!

This was one of the main science topics in 2013. It appeared in the papers, on the net, and there was a big conference about it. And genetics has been pushing forward ever since. This is not simply a breeding program like what is happening with the Quagga Project.

This is basically the bringing back to life species that have gone extinct, a la Jurassic Park. But this is not something that we may be able to do at some distant point in the future. The future is now. A type of wild goat, the Pyrenean ibex, was resurrected (via surrogate goat mother) for 10 minutes before the kid died.

A couple of years ago there was an article in the Halifax Herald about Australian scientists working to resurrect a recently extinct species of frog. They managed to get to the stage where the egg was beginning to divide and differentiate. There are many other examples easily found on the internet. So it is happening even as we discuss it; bald, pasty-skinned, socially inept scientists are fiendishly working away in their laboratories.

Right now they are only looking at the recently extinct – a few decades or a century. But there already is talk about bringing back the mammoth or perhaps a saber-tooth tiger. You know it is not going to stop there.

How long before Jurassic Park becomes reality? So the question is: “Should we bring extinct species back just because we can?” Some points to think about:

- evolution has already selected against these species (to misquote Jurassic Park)

- humans are the only species that has the ability to deliberately (maliciously?) and methodically cause the extinction of another species.

- if we can’t look after the ones we have now why do we need more

- how long before it becomes commercialized – think Arnold Schwarzenegger in “The Sixth Day” Let's hear your view.

Explanation / Answer

De extinction though seems to be possible in the modern genetically achieved world, the species were lost long back and its high time to think about the present species that are about to be extinct. Bringing back the old species to the modern world will not always should be a successful attempt as when they reappear in this world, it may find the present world differently and difficult to adapt.

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