Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

Each cell that was preserved well enough to get DNA out of will still have plenty of damaged DNA. There are millions of copies, so probably plenty of good copies of any stretch, but it is an enormous job to stitch up a good one, and chromosomes packaging it all.

Then, if you can get it substituted into a zygote from an elephant and bring that to term (far from guaranteed, the nucleus could be subtly incompatible), you still have only one individual that will get old and die. A viable breeding population needs many other, different individuals.

It might be possible several or many decades from now. Pray elephants have not themselves been driven to extinction by then. If they have, bringing them back would be both more valuable and responsible, but even harder with nothing to gestate in.




[flagged]


That's weird, why are leftists against zoos?


Because zoos are considered by some to be animal cruelty and objectification


He's a troll. Don't feed trolls.


this was a troll and you shouldn't reply, but I'm more or less against zoos, in the sense that I won't support them with my money. for most mammals and some cephalopods, they're cruel and exploitative. I'm not against them as a last ditch measure to conserve a species though




Join us for AI Startup School this June 16-17 in San Francisco!

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: