Can Neanderthals Be Brought Back from the Dead?

[goffik]

In a S IEGEL interview, synthetic biology expert George Church of Harvard University explains how DNA will become the building material of the future -- one that can help create virus-resistant human beings and possibly bring back lost species like the Neanderthal.George Church, 58, is a pioneer in synthetic biology, a field whose aim is to create synthetic DNA and organisms in the laboratory. During the 1980s, the Harvard University professor of genetics helped initiate the Human Genome Project that created a map of the human genome. In addition to his current work in developing accelerated procedures for sequencing and synthesizing DNA, he has also been involved in the establishing of around two dozen biotech firms. In his new book, "Regenesis: How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and Ourselves," which he has also encoded as strands of DNA and distributed on small DNA chips, Church sketches out a story of a second, man-made Creation.

Full article:

http://m.spiegel.de/international/zeitg ... referrrer=

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[juamei]

Given how intelligent neanderthals have been shown to be, surely this is ethically the same as vat growing a human??

[Megas]

I don' think we need to look too deeply into elements of our current society to realise that the Neanderthal Gene is not that far from us.