Headline July 09, 2014

''' BRINGING SPECIES BACK 

FROM THE DEAD?! ^ 

BUT SHOULD WE? !WOW! '''

EACH YEAR, an estimated   10,000    to    100,000    animal species die off.

They join the countless species that have gone extinct over the course of the earth's history      -and extinction means forever.

At least it used to. Scientists are now closing in on the ability to bring extinct specie back from oblivion.

No, this doesn't  mean the plot of   -Jurassic Park-  -back in theatres -just so recently-  in 3-D format    -is going to become a reality.

Researchers need intact  DNA   for  de-extinction to work,  and dinosaurs have been gone too long for any genetic material to remain in fossils.

But there's a very real chance that  we'll  be able to bring back more recently extinguished species,  even  ice-age  animals like  the woolly  mammoth.

In  2003  a team  of Spanish  and  French  scientists was able to    re-create the Pyrenean Ibex,  which had gone extinct three years earlier. The resurrected animal, a clone of the last living Pyrenean Ibex-

Didn't survive very long. But new advances, including the ability of the scientists to manufacture  DNA  to order, ensure that the sources rate will go up.

In January, Australian scientists announced that they had developed embryos of the existing gastric brooding frog.

Just because we can bring species back from the dead,  however, doesn't mean that we should.

Although there are undeniable benefits to reviving a species in theory, there's no way of knowing whether, say, a passenger pigeon would be able to resume its old ecological niche or:

If it might even crowd out existing species.

End environmentalists rightly worry that a reliance on de-extinction might erode support for the hard work of traditional conservation.

Why worry about  preserving wildlife habitat or fighting poaching if we know scientists can just reverse our mistakes.

Just lets stop for a minute and see,  how the hell does  "De-extinction Works".

1. Find A Cell

Scientists try to find intact cells of an extinct species, usually in well preserved remains in a cold or frozen area, if they can't find living or whole cells, they maybe able to make do with an intact nucleus in a dead cell.

2. Pick A Host

the nucleus of the extinct animal cell is transferred into a host cell that has had its nucleus removed. the host cell should be from a similar species  -as in using an elephant to host a woolly mammoth.

3. Multiply

The scientists prompt the new cell to begin dividing until becomes a viable embryo.

4. Incubate

The embryo is transplanted into an egg or womb of a host animal to develop, hopefully, into a now  de-extinct animal

But those extinctions are our mistakes to correct, which may give us  ''the moral obligation''  to do so, as futurist Stewart Brand put it during a recent TED talk.

"Humans have made a huge hole in nature,'' he said.  "We have the ability now..............to repair some of that damage.

But what exactly is in the De-extinction Pipeline:

1. Gastric Drooping Frog

Native to Australia went extinct in the 1980s.

2. Passenger Pigeon

Once numbered in the billions; went extinct in 1914.

3. Thylacine

Also known as the Tasmanian tiger; went extinct in 1930s.

4. Pyrenean Ibex

Found in Spain and Portugal; went extinct in 2000.  

"Still, no matter how much the technology   -and the effort-   advances, we'd do well to heed the lesson of   "Jurassic Park":

" !Proceed with caution! ".

""The Walking Dead""  Scientists,  so, may soon be able to revive long=extinct species. But should they?

Wisdom must reason and prevail. And leave the velociraptors be.

With respectful dedication to the  "Scientists"  of France, Spain, Australia and the world over. See Ya  all,  Sirs',  on the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:

"' Finding A Cell "'

Good night and God bless!

SAM Daily Times - The Voice of the Voiceless