Who would not want to keep our pets beside us for the longest time? Most of us (except those who have allergies or asthma to pet furs, feathers, etc.)...
Who would not want to keep our pets beside us for the longest time? Most of us (except those who have allergies or asthma to pet furs, feathers,
etc.), would want a pet. In fact, many of us already have one to keep. Some would even have more.
We keep pets so dearly to an extent that we would even consider them as part of the family. Losing them (by death due to either old age or sickness) is truly disappointing, which is probably why bright minds have been moving heaven and earth finding ways to keep them for good.
Story of rich couple
In the United States, a wealthy couple had a pet -- a dog. They loved their pet so much that they appear hell bent on keeping their pet not just healthy but alive for as long as they would want to.
They actually sought the help of genetic engineers (scientists to some) who actually conducted extraction of the dog’s DNA for cryogenic storage. The couple considered the dog as their “bundle of joy”.
The procedure was made in anticipation of what they claimed as an inevitable improvement and evolution of the cloning technology. That was five years ago.
Five years after
Just as expected, the cloning technology had significant improvements. And so the frozen DNA was processed. To make the long story short, the procedure produced the first ever single birth commercially cloned puppy.
A puppy was born from the same frozen genes of their old pet which died months after a DNA sample was taken from it --- and so is their “bundle of joy”, but for a cost.
Bigger steps
With cloning proven to be possible and quite successful, genetic engineers are now studying the possibility of bringing to life even the dead animals or those which have long been dead --- including the mammoth, which dates back 40,000 years and the dinosaurs whose last known living specie dates back two million years ago.
The giant genetic step aimed at bringing to live dead species (even those which have long been dead) isn’t a remote possibility. In fact, a mouse was born in Japan using the DNA of another rodent, which died 16 years ago.
Common practice
In San Diego, a state-based zoo has long been working on cloning, but only with living animals, endangered at that.
As per record, two Asian oxes were born through a surrogate cow mother. This development pushed the genetic engineers to push farther and wonder whether or not it is possible for an elephant to act as surrogate mom for a mammoth.
As science gets more interesting with new discoveries, with every passing of winter and fall, there is certainty in bringing back the mammoth back to life through cloning. It’s just a matter of time, perhaps.
Cloning controversy
The science of cloning is basically designed to keep living organisms from being extinct. However, efforts have been made to use cloning to humans. Not so much have been said whether or not tests have been done on human cloning, much less results of it. GP
