It rained. Now, if that's not enough to make you gasp, let me explain. It rained for four days. In July. In Texas. During a drought. In Texas! That should make you gasp. If not, please consult the September edition of National Geographic article called "What's Up With the Weather?"
*Anyway, did anyone read the the April NatGeo main headline? "Reviving Extinct Species" was blasted across the front page. The picture was classy and attention grabbing: several extinct ice-age species (including a sabre-toothed tiger, the ancient bear-like giant sloth, and the eye-catching mammoth) coming out of a giant test tube and going onto a pre-made Siberian landscape. Mini-articles from that edition included "Ladies Last" (about how on average ladies tend to live longer) , "Gut Reactions" (about the increase of people allergic to gluten since the 1950's), "Aerial Assaults" (designing our drones after mosquitoes might make them resilient) and "Samurai of the Sea" (about how the sensitive "nose" of a sawfish, long thought to be only for sensing movements around the animal, has been found to be used to decapitate fish) are very interesting. But skip those for the moment and slip on over to page 28 (even if it means skipping the "Next" section, which I love too) Before you start reading this fascinating article call "Bringing them Back to Life", look at the small caption at the bottom right page. For those of you who don't have National Geographic, or don't keep it if you do, I'll read it for you.
"Bucardo. Cara pyrenaica pyrenaica. The bucardo, or Pyrenean ibex, lived high in the Pyrenees until its extinction in 2000. Three years later researchers attempted to clone Celia, the last bucardo (above). The clone died minutes after birth." End Quote, underlining added.Then move on to page 32, "Recipe for Resurrection"
- Assemble a passenger pigeon genome** from DNA fragments in museum specimens. Compare with the rock pigeon, which is still alive.
- Add the particular traits of a passenger pigeon to a rock pigeon (red breast, longer tail, etc.)
- Add passenger pigeon genes** into rock pigeon stem cells***. Convert into eggs.
- Breed pairs of rock pigeons (bearing passenger pigeon eggs) and hope that the offspring...
- ...don't sprout extra wings and then answer this question: if it looks and flocks and acts like a passenger pigeon, is it one?
More about this tomorrow (I'm getting a headache.)
*All thanks to National Geographic.
**What makes you you.
*** For lack of better term, blank cells.
1 comment:
RAIN,RAIN,RAIN,RAIN,RAIN,RAIN,RAIN,RAIN,RAIN,RAIN,RAIN,RAIN,RAIN,RAIN,RAIN,RAIN,RAIN,RAIN,RAIN,RAIN,RAIN,RAIN,RAIN,RAIN,RAIN,RAIN,RAIN,RAIN,RAIN,RAIN,RAIN,RAIN,RAIN,RAIN,RAIN,AND RAIN. Ha, beat you in the RAIN contest by BIG time!!!
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