Mammoth Baby

Posted on July 10th, 2007 in History, Science by Craig

Ever since childhood, I’ve been fascinated by stories of the occasional discovery of well-preserved mammoths. Now comes news of a six-month-old female mammoth discovered in Siberia. The animal is thought to have died about 10,000 years ago, at the end of the last Ice Age. It’s surprisingly well-preserved, by the sounds of it, missing only its tail.

Mammoth specimens usually end up “being lost to a lucrative trade in ivory, skin, hair and other body parts,” according to one scientist interviewed for the article. Scientists themselves have Jurassic Park aspirations for the extinct beast.

Some scientists hold out hope that well preserved sperm or other cells containing viable DNA could be used to resurrect the mammoth.

Dr [Larry] Agenbroad remains optimistic about the potential for cloning[.]

“When we got the Jarkov mammoth [found frozen in Taimyr, Siberia, in 1997], the geneticists told me: ‘if you can get us good DNA, we’ll have a baby mammoth for you in 22 months’,” he told BBC News.

The prospect of bringing the mammoth to life intrigues me, but I wonder if it’s really a good idea. I also wonder how many scientists share Agenbroad’s optimism. The article doesn’t quote any skeptics.

Sensible Science

Posted on May 4th, 2007 in Climate, Science by Craig

Nature, the science magazine, has a new blog on climate change. If this article, Confusion on Climate Variability and Trends, by Roger Pielke, Jr., of the University of Colorado, is any indication, then it’s safe to say that this blog is no place to look for global warming hysteria or for the polemics of reactionaries. Instead, look for debate on the details of climate research and the impact that has on policy and theory. Quoting the article:

Out of this, one thing seems clear — improved decision making is unlikely to occur if basic issues of climate science are simplified to such a degree that they are misrepresented, especially by an authoritative source like the New York Times.

Looking at the comments on Pielke’s article, it looks like I can also find indications of healthy debate among scientists and other interested parties, demonstrating Hegel’s thesis-antithesis-synthesis paradigm.

Update Maybe the debate isn’t healthy as much as it’s entertaining. See the comments on this post at Deltoid, for example.

Update 2 May 29th: Its editor posts a note of clarification on the direction and intent of the Climate Feedback blog.