Kiran Chug writes in the Dominion Post about Wellingtonian Alan Cooper and his involvement in scientists’ recently announced ability to reconstruct the blood of woolly mammoths.
The technique could potentially be used to recreate the blood cells of other extinct animals.
An excerpt: (read in full here)
“Woolly mammoths are believed to have died out thousands of years ago because of climate change, but Professor Cooper said scientists were able to recreate their blood by using ancient DNA preserved in bones between 25,000 and 43,000 years old.
…
“However, Prof Cooper said there was a “big gap” between building one component of an animal’s blood and seeing woolly mammoths roam the Earth again.
“”One protein out of tens of thousands does not make an animal.”
“In addition to the prohibitive cost and the scientific challenges, he said there was no reason to try and reconstruct a woolly mammoth – as much could be learnt from resurrecting DNA sequences of extinct species instead.”