Thaindian News

May 31, 2010 (Pen Men at Work): It is hard to visualize that 10,000 years ago, in the North American region, there existed gigantic mammals that are now the material of legends - mammoths and mastodons, ground sloths and saber-toothed cats. They and countless other species have disappeared from the face of the Earth. And today, to a certain extent, by reason of the spreading out of the human species, mammals are facing extinction quicker than ever before.

The meaning of extermination or extinction is vanished forever. However, have you all ever thought about how the world would be if we could bring back those extinct and rather exotic animals? ‘60 Minutes’ of CBS has reported that American scientists are executing extraordinary technological and biological advancements that are transporting the human beings closer than ever before to the likelihood of an authentic animal revivification.

Animals such as the woolly mammoth, the saber-toothed tiger and the Irish elk are animals that possess the potential to fascinate the human beings of today. Today, these animals survive merely as bones in museums, are animate only in the thoughts of humans and in the regenerations by painters and filmmakers. However, have you ever envisioned about the scenario if these animals were resurrected?

In the epoch of DNA, the lovers of science are aware that these vanished creatures, like all the breathing entities on Earth, are, at the end of the day, nothing more than chains of the four letters - A, C, T, and G. These constitute the genetic or hereditary outline or code of life. The codes for wiped out animals were believed to have died along with them, until recently, when appliances like one at the Smithsonian’s DNA lab commenced to deliver fabulous and almost incredible results.

Sean Carroll is a lecturer of molecular biology and genetics at the University of Wisconsin. Carroll articulated to ‘60 Minutes’ correspondent, Lesley Stahl, that the analysis of ancient DNA only emerged on the landscape 20 years ago or so. This is the notion that one could produce DNA from extinct creatures and from calcified bones thereby understanding something about ancient history.

Carroll has articulated that, like so many facets in the field of DNA, the development in this field has been astounding.

One unanticipated discovery has been the significance of ancient hair. Scientists recently unearthed that the hair shaft sticks down DNA inside it like a biological plastic. It defends it. Therefore, the hair represents a loaded and overflowing source of hereditary data.