Bringing Back the Mammoth

Japanese scientists (who else) announced last week they were attempting to Jurassic Park the wolly mammoth.

From the Daily Yomiuri Online:

A team of researchers will attempt to resurrect the species using cloning technologies after obtaining tissue this summer from the carcass of a mammoth preserved in a Russian mammoth research laboratory. It has already established a technique to extract DNA from frozen cells.
“Preparations to realize this goal have been made,” said Prof. Akira Iritani, leader of the team and a professor emeritus of Kyoto University.
Under the plan, the nuclei of mammoth cells will be inserted into an elephant’s egg cells from which the nuclei have been removed to create an embryo containing mammoth genes.

Not only are the Japanese doing something out of a Gozilla movie, but they even talk in hilarious syntax like a Japanese scientist – “preparations to realize this goal have been made.”

I thought scientists messing with nature in hilariously foolhardy ways where their own creations will destroy them had gone the way of the dodo.  But no! Enjoy being trampled by your half-mammoth half-elephant, all-evil monster, Science.