Tuesday, December 20, 2005

McMammoth Burgers One Step Closer to Reality

From Livescience.com
(http://tinyurl.com/a6g7m):
Scientists have mapped part of the genome of the wooly mammoth, a huge mammal that's been extinct for about 10,000 years.

The breakthrough could lead to recreating the creatures.

A team led by Hendrik Poinar at McMaster University unlocked secrets of the creature's nuclear DNA by working with a well-preserved 27,000-year-old specimen from Siberia. Colleagues at Penn State sequenced 1 percent of the genome in a few hours and say they expect to finish the whole genome in about a year if funding is provided.

Unbelievable. That "could lead to recreating the creatures" is way, way premature, but it's still stunning.

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