Animals on ice
The Frozen Zoo, part of San Diego Zoo’s conservation project, has samples of over 8.400 rare animals in the hope that one day scientists will be able to create endangered or even extinct animals from them…and that day might just have come.
Scientists have managed to use these skin cells to create special cells called induced pluripotent stem (IPS) cells. These stem cells are the basis for all other types of cell so theoretically it’s now possible to create egg and sperm cells to eventually create an embryo. They had a breakthrough earlier this year as stem cells from a drill monkey were used to create brain cells. So Jurassic Park might not remain fiction for much longer…
