The Frozen Ark

Quote,

This new project will collect DNA samples from all kinds of species and freeze them at minus 80 degrees Celsius. Priority will be given to species most in danger of extinction and the first seriously endangered animals to enter the Frozen Ark will be the Yellow seahorse, Scimitar horned oryx, Socorro dove and Polynesian tree snails.

‘Natural catastrophes apart, the current rate of animal loss is the greatest in the history of the Earth and the fate of animal species is desperate’, said Prof Phil Rainbow, Keeper of Zoology at the Natural History Museum.

‘Progress in molecular biology has been so fast that we cannot predict what extraordinary things may be possible in the next few decades. For future biologists and conservationists and for the animals they seek to protect this global network will be of immeasurable value.’

LinK:http://www.nhm.ac.uk/news/items/frozen_ark270704.html


Isnt it a little crazy, human activity are responsible for the biggest incoming mass extinction, but some of us will try to save the world biodiversity.

Do this mean it is already too late, like the old Noha fable in the bible ?

Sounds like jurassic park for our grandgrandgrandgrandsons and doughters

Tassadar said:

Isnt it a little crazy, human activity are responsible for the biggest incoming mass extinction, but some of us will try to save the world biodiversity.

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Not crazy at all, makes good sense. Shows the truth: Humans are different, despite endless attempts from everywhere to generalize.

Interesting. I wonder if this collection of DNA will ever end. There are so many creatures.

We'll need to collect various genetic samples of each individual species, so that when they are recreated, there won't be inbreeding-related genetic deficincies.

blindside said:

Interesting. I wonder if this collection of DNA will ever end. There are so many creatures.

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I hope the mosquito will be left aside, oups, the birds need them...as well as many mammals....

I read about this in my newspaper just a little while ago. 10,000 animals are edangered.

Read in the newspaper how many humans are endangered

MarineCorps said:

I read about this in my newspaper just a little while ago. 10,000 animals are edangered.

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Far more than that, I'm afraid. Those will just be the fairly large ones that people know about. Currently, scientists have identified around 1.6 million species (plants and animals combined) but believe that 7-10 million actually exist.

It's estimated that human interference of one kind or another has resulted in extinction rates being currently 1,000 to 10,000 the normal rate. At the moment, 1000-10,000 species go extinct every year, compared to the average of 1-10 per year, which is what it was before human beings appeared. That means that (very roughly) one hundred things go extinct every week. That's about one every 90 minutes.

As for this project, it's very worthy but I'm not sure what it's intended to do. Resurrecting extinct species with nothing but their preserved DNA a la Jurassic Park is impossible, because an individual's physiognomy is determined not just by its own DNA but by the womb or egg in which it develops. In other words, you can't really create an individual of any given species without already possessing another individual of that species. However, storing DNA could be useful for helping very small populations of endangered species recover, by widening and enriching their gene pool.

I say it's a good idea.

If science and cloning gives the means to save life, then we must use it.

The protesting religious or moral types are free to die in whatever way suits them.

CurtSibling said:

The protesting religious or moral types are free to die in whatever way suits them.

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You say that all the time.

Previous mass extinctions have killed off up to 95% of all species. The earth doesn't care (unless you make it sentient) who or what walks, creeps, flies or swims on the surface and beneath it. Saving species and ecosystems is a human exercise that has little or no value or and usefulness outside of our human centered view of things.

This just made me think of the ending to Michael Crichton's latest book, Prey. (pretty good book, by the way)

"They didn't understand what they were doing.
I'm afraid that will be on the tombstone of the human race.
I hope it's not.
We might get lucky."

Speedo said:

This just made me think of the ending to Michael Crichton's latest book, Prey. (pretty good book, by the way)

"They didn't understand what they were doing.
I'm afraid that will be on the tombstone of the human race.
I hope it's not.
We might get lucky."

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Who are ''they'' and who are ''We'' ?

Birdjaguar said:

Saving species and ecosystems is a human exercise that has little or no value or and usefulness outside of our human centered view of things.

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That seems a peculiar thing to say. Doesn't it benefit the members of the species being saved?

The fact that there have been huge extinction events in the past is completely irrelevant. You might as well say that there have been plagues in the past which killed millions, so therefore we needn't bother to treat disease today. Moreover, the fact that it is the actions of humanity that cause the accelerated loss of biodiversity means that it's our responsibility to try to do something about it.

By the way, "Prey" was a ridiculous book, with some pretty daft science - totally unbelievable, even by his standards!

Birdjaguar said:

Previous mass extinctions have killed off up to 95% of all species. The earth doesn't care (unless you make it sentient) who or what walks, creeps, flies or swims on the surface and beneath it. Saving species and ecosystems is a human exercise that has little or no value or and usefulness outside of our human centered view of things.

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You know, half the time, I beleive this philosophy.

EDIT: Aww, really Plotinus? I thought the whole factory that makes them was stupid and unrealistic, but the idea of a smart cloud of microbeings seemed cool enough to me.

cgannon64 said:

You know, half the time, I beleive this philosophy.

EDIT: Aww, really Plotinus? I thought the whole factory that makes them was stupid and unrealistic, but the idea of a smart cloud of microbeings seemed cool enough to me.

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It was pretty cool when they were starting to exhibit evidence of higher thought and similar emergent properties. It got silly when they started forming perfect replicas of human beings and talking. Crichton's novels always seem to pass a sort of watershed at some point where they go from "plausible" to "utterly impossible". The good ones do this subtly so you don't notice - the less good ones do it very obviously with a jolt - and the bad ones do it within the first ten pages!

Oh yeah, I forgot that part.