Japanese scientists have cloned a mouse 16 years dead. They claim that this will benefit humanity, but how and why? They could bring back extinct animals, too, such as the woolly mammoth or the sabre tooth tiger, but what for?

By extracting DNA from the brain of a frozen dead mouse, scientists in Japan managed to clone a mouse. The DNA was injected into an emptied live eggshell and the growing process started by an electrical shock. Later, the egg was implanted into a surrogate mother who eventually gave birth to a normally behaving mouse.

The fall out was tremendous, though. It took 1,100 tries to produce seven healthy mice. As stated by the scientists, 500 died in the wombs of the surrogate mothers. In other words, there were 600 births, and only seven were normal. That’s really something to think about should you consider having yourself cloned in the future. Who will look after the 593 abnormal children?

But nobody could so far clarify what good for humanity should come out of it. Any statements going in that direction veered immediately off into the cloning of animals. Obviously, scientists are unable to imagine any use for this waste of effort. It just means that laws regulating the use of any human tissue have to be adapted as fast as possible. Who knows what other Frankensteins might try on your DNA, instead of frozen mice? I for one certainly do not relish the thought of being cloned after my death.

Image credit: University of Cologne

Would the famous Oetzi, the frozen Bronze Age warrior found in Austria’s Oetztal, would he want to be cloned? I really don’ think he would relish the thought. Nor do I see any sense to it or to bringing alive a frozen warrior prince from Scythia. So what use could this monstrous technology be to humanity? It’s just scientists again showing off for nothing, using up money more usefully employed for much needed real research.

Image credit: State and Republic of Basel

As to bringing back died-out animals, didn’t they die out for a very specific reason? Wasn’t it because they couldn’t cope anymore? Why should they be brought back and add to the problems already rampant in animal kingdom? There is absolutely no reason, why a woolly mammoth should once more walk the plains just for the self aggrandisement of a mad scientist.

This world is crazy enough, and by far more complicated than these little scientists seem to think, without adding to the overall mess with animals that don’t belong here anymore. Quite apart from that, dead is dead, and that too has its reason. We definitely do not need scientist running amok as modern day Frankensteins.

While criminally negligent governments like Japan’s are letting their scientists play devil’s advocates, the United States and namely its President haven’t lifted a finger to prevent or stop it. This just shows again that the so called most powerful man in the world is a nobody and doesn’t have anything to tell to anybody. Or is he hoping for a clone of himself? God save the world of any more Bushes. The two we had were four more than any planet could stomach in 4 billion years.

On the positive side, as long as the Bush family keeps to breeding and rearing young ones, there is no need to clone any more Neanderthals.