Two amazing scientific advances to report on today. As we all discussed in the Explainer lounge today, the newspaper had an article about possible scientific plans to clone a woolly mammoth.
Regenterating a Mammoth for 10 Million – NY Times
Wooly Mammoth Task Complete – AP
I’m super psyched about this idea. Imagine driving across Kansas and seeing a herd of woolly mammoths. OMG! After a vigorous debate among Explainers about whether or not it would be ethical to bring back mammoths or the next step…Neanderthals, Paul D. walked in the room. We thought he would shed some light on the Woolly Mammoth sitch, but instead he was more interested in talking about another scientific advance.
Apparently some researchers at MIT have figured out how to insert a section of DNA into the genes of a E Coli to make the bacteria smell like spearmint instead of like poop. This is pretty cool for researchers who spend all day in a lab working with the malodorous bacteria.
Minty Ecoli and Other Bioengineering Feats - NPR
But you know who will be most happy about that advance in the field of DNA research and gene therapy? The future zookeeper who will have to clean the woolly mammoth pen. And yes I wish I thought of that joke eight hours earlier.
Actually it’s kinda scary the reaction to the minty e coli. The article says…
“Who wouldn’t be impressed? E. coli bacteria have been around for thousands and thousands of years, living in the intestines of humans and animals, never once smelling like wintergreen. But when I asked Steve and his graduate adviser Reshma if they felt surprised, humbled, delighted, amazed by what they had done, they weren’t.
‘We’re engineers,’ Reshma said. ‘We’re building stuff.”
…cool