A new frog species found in New York and New Jersey
A new frog species has been discovered in the
midst of some of the world’s tallest skyscrapers. The frogs are believed
to have lived among us for a century without being recognized. "So much
for the notion that new species are never found in America," comments
Loren Coleman. Over at Frontiers of Zoology, Dale Drinnon rounds up
reports of giant snakes in New Mexico
over the past few decades. From the descriptions, the snakes are
sometimes as large as telephone poles and over 12 feet long. One man
recalls seeing the ground heaving up and down supposedly as a giant
snake breathed, which makes us think of the giant underground worms in Tremors, but as far as we know Kevin Bacon is not involved.
Cloning a Mammoth?
Scientists from the Northeastern
Federal University in the Siberian city of Yakutsk and the Center of
Biotechnological Studies in Seoul are launching a joint project to clone
an animal that became extinct many thousands years ago – the mammoth.
“The
aim of our project is to study the genetic codes of primeval animals,”
Semyon Grigoryev, a biologist from Yakutsk, says. “But the main
objective is to clone a mammoth.”
It may seem like an
easy task: simply extract genetic material from mammoth remains,
transplant it into an egg cell of a modern female elephant, wait for 22
months (an elephant’s pregnancy period) and get a real mammoth! But the
most difficult thing would be finding well-preserved genetic material.
“Our
Korean colleagues are worried that the genetic material from mammoth
remains found in Siberia may not be viable enough for that,” another
biologist, Gennady Boeskurov, says.
“Sometimes,
specimens of mammoth remains are so well preserved, almost as if the
animal died yesterday. But they may not be as “fresh” as they look,
because the ice of the so-called permafrost layer in Siberia sometimes
melts in summer. So I don’t believe it is actually possible to find
living cells in mammoths’ remains found in Siberia.”
It
is known that microorganisms and plants could remain viable in a state
of anabiosis (a state of suspended animation) for thousands of years,
and then come back to life. But this does not work for mammoths.
Nevertheless,
the project’s participants are still hoping to find a mammoth fossil
that has never experienced a thaw. For this purpose, the Koreans are
planning to bring a mobile laboratory to Yakutia (of which Yakutsk is
the administrative center) this summer.
“There is another way to clone a mammoth – by using the so-called ‘indirect’ cloning method,” Gennady Boeskurov says.
“Fragments
of mammoth DNA can be found in their remains in the Siberian
permafrost, and we can restore the genetic codes of these animals that
became extinct long ago. In fact, scientists have already decoded 50% of
the mammoth’s genetic code. Many laboratories all over the world are
working on that, and, if the mammoth’s genome is fully decoded, it would
be possible to modify the genetic code of modern elephants and clone a
mammoth in this way.”
The head of the Korean team of
scientists, Mr. Hwang Woo-suk, an expert in stem cells, sounds very
optimistic. “I believe, we’ll achieve our goal within several years,” he
says.
However, some skeptics say that Mr. Hwang’s
reputation as a scientist is not impeccable. Some time ago, he claimed
that he had achieved some success in cloning a human. But later, Mr.
Hwang had to confess that he had falsified the results of his work. But
at the same time, nobody has ever questioned his success in cloning
dogs, pigs and wolves. So, maybe, Mr. Hwan would really succeed in
coning a mammoth.
This is Russia’s second joint
project aimed at cloning a mammoth. The first one is being conducted in
partnership with Japan. This year, a shinbone of a mammoth with
well-preserved remains of bone marrow was found in Yakutia. It was
decided to use this bone marrow for extracting genetic material for a
mammoth clone.
Scientists hope that this clone will be born in about 5 years from now!!!!
Mysterious animal explosions at hog farms, baffle scientists!
Mysterious explosions on hog farms across the Midwest are killing hogs and perplexing scientists. The explosions seem
to originate from the manure pits where an unexplained foam forms,
trapping methane gas within "manure bubbles." Be warned, the photos are
just as disturbing as whatever your mind has conjured up with the phrase
"manure bubbles."
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