Jurassic park
It is far from the focus of this blog, but the headline is remarkable.
Extinct ibex is resurrected by cloning An extinct animal has been brought back to life for the first time after being cloned from frozen tissue.
The technology is nowhere near perfect yet, and the first specimen they tried to clone “newborn ibex kid died shortly after birth due to physical defects in its lungs. Other cloned animals, including sheep, have been born with similar lung defects.”.
How far away from the first extinct species being reborn this way, if at least for a while? What will happen to these animals: will they be able to breed? Will genetic variability be too low?
And, last but not least: when will the tech cross to “engineering”?
[update]
There is also a lengthy article in New Scientist, Jan 10 2009:
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