Academic

"What could possibly go wrong with that idea?"

By Tung Yin

Scientists to Clone Woolly Mammoth in Five Years (PC World) 

When I'm not reading law-related non-fiction books (mostly about terrorism/national security), I have a fondness for adventure thrillers, especially those by Alistair MacLean, Desmond Bagley, Lee Child, Michael Connelly, and others.  But I have a special weakness for a particular subset of thriller fiction that basically asks "what could possibly go wrong with that idea?"

The prime example of this kind of story, of course, is Michael Crichton's "Jurassic Park."  Recreate dinosaurs on an island as part of a dinosaur zoo?  What could possibly go wrong?  Many of the techno-thrillers by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child are also prime examples, as well as Childs' solo effort, "Terminal Freeze," in which a reality TV crew journey up to the Arctic to record the thawing out of what's believed to be a sabertooth tiger carcass in a block of ice.  I suppose the whole alien-government conspiracy mythology of the old "X-Files" would qualify too.

Anyway, cloning mammoth DNA and then impregnating a female African elephant with the embroyo . . . what could possibly go wrong?!?  Not to mention, with global warming and all, would you really want to be a massively furry woolly mammoth in today's world?  (Yes, I know that the scientists are saying they'll decide whether to go through with the implantation after they see if it works.)

Full post as published by The Yin Blog on January 18, 2011 (boomark / email).