Remember Dolly the Sheep? She was a clone made from living cells from an adult sheep. Dolly lived for 6 years (short-lived for a sheep) and died of a lung disease in 2003. It is not clear whether Dolly’s early departure was tied to the fact that she was a clone.Clones have only been able to be created using live tissues…until now. Recently, researchers in Japan have been able to use cells from mice that have been dead and frozen for 16 years. I find this a bit scary, as they will, of course, start looking at cloning to bring animals back from extinction (and let’s not even talk about humans!) I think the technology can only work for frozen tissues, so at least we won’t be seeing any T-Rexes roaming the streets any time soon! But what about the woolly mammoth? If you read my post from April 6, you know that some fully and partially intact mammoths have been found in permafrost conditions.
Just because we have the ability to clone extinct species, does that mean we should do it? In my opinion…uh, no.
