Noahs Ark vs. Jurassic Park :: Biology Essays Research Papers

Noah's Ark vs. Jurassic Park As the human population of the world continues to increase the flora and fauna of the planet are becoming an increasingly smaller part of the picture. Environmentalist and conservationists all over the globe are working hard to find strategies and methods for the preservation of disappearing creatures and species. An increasingly popular idea that would allow for great benefits in the field of conservation became apparent in 1996 with the cloning of sheep by the name of Dolly. Since then the scientific debate on the relationship between cloning and conservation has ensued. Although the answer to that question remains on the horizon, cloning for helping endangered species is a process that may become a frequent procedure in the future. When one thinks of cloning generally the first idea that pops into your mind is a large tube filled with some creature attached to a lot of tubes. Cloning actually, is a much more complicated and difficult process. Cloning, scientifically defined is, "asexual reproduction or as the creation of genetically identical individuals" (1). In the cloning process the DNA of one individual creature is "copied" into the cell, or embryo, of another and then that embryo develops into a baby and proceeds down the process of birth and embryological development. Currently, many scientists believe that if the DNA of endangered species is rescued and preserved that the DNA of that species could undergo the cloning process and thus produce a clone of that species. The results of this cloning process would be enormous or it "will open a new front in the battle to preserve the Earth's biodiversity by cloning endangered gorillas, tigers and other rare species" (2). Cloning of endangered species would be a monumental achievement for the scientific community. Many people when they think of cloning picture sometime weird science fiction creature in a test but in real life the idea of cloning could be a valuable tool for the environmental community and it would be a process could vastly improve the current situation of endangered species. Part of the reason why the cloning process is so highly revered is because of the level of complexity and the multiple details that must develop accordingly for the process to work. Robert P. Lanza says, "It is a deceptively simple-looking process. A needle jabs through the protective layer surrounding an egg. A research assistant sucks out the egg's nucleus, which contains the majority of a cell's genetic material, leaving behind only a sac of gel called cytoplasm.