Patrice Sherman
  • Home
  • Storytime!
    • The Three Bears of Pocomoonshine Lake
    • The Memphis Town Musicians
    • Pegeen the Homespun Queen
    • The Army of Animals
    • Sylvie Bartholomew Beats the Devil
    • The Fisherman's Wife and the Catfish King
    • Stories About Real People >
      • Sarah and Caesar
      • John Banvard Paints the Mississippi
  • My Books
    • The Sun's Daughter
    • Ben and the Emancipation Proclamation >
      • Discover more About Benjamin Holmes
      • Bake an Emancipation Day Cake!
    • Nonfiction
  • Blue Frog Blog
  • Links
  • Writing Picture Books
  • Contact Me
  • Site Map

The Mammoths are Coming! (Well, not yet...)

3/19/2012

0 Comments

 
Picture
    By now you've probably heard of cloned sheep, cows, chickens, dogs and cats.  But cloned mammoths? That's science fiction, right?  Well, not quite.  Apparently, scientists from Russia and South Korea have signed on to a joint project to clone a wooly mammoth using ancient DNA and elephant cells.  The project is headed by Korean cloning pioneer Hwang Woo-Suk. 
    Suk has already generated controversy by some of his claims in human cloning that were later proven to be untrue.  In this instance, however, he insists his methods are on the up and up. 
    Basically, the team intends remove the nuclei from the ova of an Indian elephant and inject cells retrieved from the remains of a mammoth embryo.  Will it work?  The last mammoths roamed the earth 4,500 years ago.  Theories vary as to the cause of their extinction.  Some scientists attribute their demise to warmer temperatures and retreating glaciers.  Others claim human hunters drove the beasts out of business.  Now, it seems, that humans may be on the verge of bringing them back.  Stay tuned (but don't hold your breath.)

Links
If you want to learn more, you can read articles in the Vancouver Sun or UK Daily Telegraph.  More about the sequencing of mammoth DNA, here and if you want to read up on mammoths in general, the Illinois State Museum has an excellent mammoth page.

Picture Credit:
Florida Educational Technology Clearinghouse
 

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    About Me

    _I am a writer of both fiction and nonfiction for children and young adults. As a former archivist, I am especially interested in history and love visiting museums and libraries of all kinds.

    Photo Credit:
    Frog, Smithsonian Inst.

    Archives

    January 2017
    July 2016
    March 2012

    Categories

    All
    Caterpillars
    Charles Babbage
    Cloning
    Dna
    Emily Shore
    England
    Extinction
    Frog
    Harvard Khipu Database Project
    Inca
    Inca Record Keeping
    Inca Writing
    Inka
    Khipu
    Larry The Cat
    Leopard Frog
    Mammoths
    Nature Writing
    New Species
    New York
    Sherlock Holmes

    Blogs I follow

    Harvey Blume
    ​
    Michelle Cusolito
    ​