Science Will Bring Real Life Jurassic Park Dream To Life

As strange as it may seem, the screenwriters for the blockbuster movie Jurassic Park had it right. In the movie, they harvested the DNA of a dinosaur from the blood sucked up by a Jurassic mosquito. The mosquito was stored in hardened amber for millions of years. They then took the DNA and inserted it into the embryo of a modern age frog. When the frog gave birth, it gave birth to a dino. Well... a dino egg that is.

Much in the same fashion, scientists in Japan at the Kyoto University have the same plans. Basically.

They are harvesting the DNA from a mammoth and plan to bring the big hairy guy back! It might seem a bit far-fetched and a bit sci-fi, but it can actually be done. Or at least they think it can. If you consider that scientists have successfully cloned sheep and other animals at this point, being that the mammoth idea works on the exact same principles.. this is entirely possible.

The mammoth cells were harvested from some frozen mammoth skin that has been stored in a Russian mammoth research facility. They have been studying the eating, living and mating habits of the mammoth for years and are considered experts in the field. So for them to be able to look forward to this has just been an amazing trip for them.

What others are considering however are the ethical and moral repercussions of the whole thing. If they can bring back a mammoth, and this actually works.. what next? Some people are worried about possibilities of these types of things "polluting" the rest of the world should a "wild" DNA changed embryo get loose. Or the possibility of some sort of mistake go wrong.. according to those opposed to this there are tons of reasons for this not to move forward.

However the chance for science to study these creatures with the use of modern tools and technologies is just too good to pass up. This is one of the major reasons for this to take place, and the scientists in charge are going to do everything in their power to make sure it happens.

According to scientists at the Kyoto University this should all take place in about 5-6 years time. So not too far out we could be reading about the first mammoth in millions of years walking around the grounds of a large caged in enclosure somewhere in Japan surrounded by scientists just waiting for their chance to poke it with a needle.

Fermilab Due To Close. Tevatron Atom Smasher On Borrowed Time.

Living close to the Fermilab facility you start to take it for granted. All the time that I have lived less than 10 miles from the place and you forget it's there. Sure there is the common thought that should something there go wrong they will blow a hole in the ground large enough to engulf my house (will never happen). But aside from stories like that, the place is really quiet.

The only time I ever hear anything from the place is lately and it is because of all the debate for it's continued funding. Well it has just been announced that it will no longer be funded by the DOE (Department Of Energy).
Never mind the fact that the results of the collisions and the work they do there allows physicists to study the structure of matter.

Scientists working there had hoped to at least keep it open for at least three more years. They have started a renewed search for the Higgs Boson (The God Particle). Finding this particle would allow scientists to explain how matter gains mass and how things come to be. Basically it would allow them to fully understand almost everything about the most widely accepted model of physics. Needless to say, this is very important.

So important, it is one of the major reasons billions were spent to build a competing collider in Europe called the LHC (Large Hadron Collider). The 17 mile loop competes with Fermilab for the same results and they just recently "turned it on".

They have high hopes that they will find what they are looking for out in Europe, which is one reason they feel they do not fully need Fermilab. Which will put alot of scientists out of work. Most will find jobs elsewhere, but some will end up working in the community as well. It all depends on their situation. A few years ago while I delivered pizza to earn some extra cash one of my co-workers was a astro-physicist who worked at Fermilab. Tell me that wasn't weird.

Hopefully we may find ways to keep Fermilab open. I have doubts, but there are movements underway to try and fight the closing. I don't think they will have any success but we can all hope. It would be a beneficial thing to keep both colliders open I think. They can each work on similar aspects of specific theories. They shouldn't need to directly compete.

However much sense that may make to keep both open, they have already considered that option I am sure. But they are still trying to fight the closing. They have made many historic discoveries at Fermilab. Now the LHC will continue where the Tevatron will leave off. As the studies begin to generate results they will show why the LHC was the right choice and I am sure they are correct. Just a sad thing to see something that I have lived next to for so many years close down. Not sure what will become of the land and facility but whatever they decide it should be rather interesting.