The number of species of animals on the Earth is decreasing. We have to remember it not only on World Wildlife Day (March, 3), but every day. Let’s check the Chas News compilation about how cloning can solve the situation.
In a childhood, many people admired dinosaur pictures in books. Such powerful creatures had nothing to oppose the 15-kilometer asteroid that fell on our planet. This event went down in history as the Cretaceous extinction. It resulted in the extinction of 76% of living things. On the account of our planet, there were only 5 mass extinctions like this to date.
Many scientists believe that animals and plants are disappearing at a rate unprecedented since the time of the dinosaurs. Gerardo Sebalos Gonzalez, an ecologist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, estimates that more than 400 vertebrate species have become extinct in the past 100 years alone. Humanity is guilty of it. Without our intervention, it would take nature up to 10,000 years to deal with so many living things.
In other words, humans are destroying species with the effectiveness of a falling asteroid. But if the dinosaurs did not stand a chance, then the current flora and fauna have them. In the arsenal of mankind lacks scientific advances, one of which may be useful in the fight against the sixth mass extinction. As you may have guessed from the title, it’s about cloning.
Dolly’s fate
Cloning is one of the favorite topics of science fiction and cinema, along with time travel or the colonization of other worlds. But people have not yet built a time machine or an extraterrestrial settlement. Anyway, they’ve already learned to create copies of living beings.
Back in the 1930s, the German embryologist Hans Spemann suggested that in order to grow a clone, it’s necessary to take the somatic cell nucleus (that is, any cell in the body except the germ cell) and place it in an egg, first removing its own nucleus. However, he could not test his theory. It was done by American biologists Robert Briggs and Thomas King. In the early ‘50s, they conducted an experiment in which they used the embryonic cells of leopard frogs. The result of the experiment was the birth of almost three dozen cloned animals.
In the early 60’s British biologist John Gerdon took the next big step. He also decided to clone frogs but used differentiated cells for his experiment. They’re already formed enough to have a certain “profile” in the body (i.e. it can be skin cells, eyes, and other organs and tissues). But when he placed them in the deprived of nucleus of the egg, they changed the “specialization” and led to the creation of live frogs. Before Gerdon, scientists believed that such a transformation of mature cells was impossible, but he proved otherwise, and many years later received the Nobel Prize for it.
However, the brightest page in the history of cloning was written by British embryologists Jan Wilmut and Alan Traunson. It was thanks to them that the world-famous Dolly the sheep was born. She was the first mammal raised from differentiated cells. She was born on July 5, 1996 in the laboratory of the Plant Institute in Edinburgh (Scotland).
The experiment was somewhat different than in the middle of the century. Instead of implanting the nucleus into the egg, the scientists combined it with a whole sheep’s breast cell (the Finnish Dorset breed) using electrical pulses. As a result, an embryo was formed, which was placed in the womb of a Scottish black-headed sheep, which bore and gave birth to Dolly.
The cloned animal has become a real celebrity. She was filmed in commercials, articles, books, and even opera were dedicated to her. However, with this name the sheep was simply obliged to become known. It was named after the country singer Dolly Parton, who fans knew not only because of her work but also because of her outstanding bust. The name was coined by a lab supervisor who looked after the sheep, but Wilmut and Traunson liked the idea. After all, Dolly was cloned from breast cells, and, apparently, the parallel seemed appropriate to them.
Be that as it may, the sheep did not leave the press for other reasons. The birth of the cloned mammal was a scientific breakthrough, and also made many think that the next in line could be humans. However, this idea did not find support in the scientific community. Even Dolly’s “parents”, Wilmut and Traunson, called human cloning a bad idea. But copies of animals are still being created.
Profitable business?
The cloning process itself is about the same as in the time of Gerdon’s frogs and Dolly the sheep. But now the creators of living duplicates are driven not only by scientific interest but also by more practical considerations.
For example, for the American company ViaGen or the Chinese Sinogene Biotechnology cloning is a source of income. They make copies of pets, mostly cats and dogs, but customers can also clone a horse. The cost varies from $35 thousand for a cat to $85 thousand for a horse.
According to some enthusiasts, cloning would be needed in animal husbandry. So, in 2015, the Chinese company Boyalife announced plans to build an entire plant, which was going to grow up to a million cloned cows. Boyalife promised to launch it in 2016, but since the announcement of the company, there has been no new information.
In general, the desire of the Chinese company seemed unusual. For example, in the United States, cloning of farm animals has been allowed since 2008, but no one has resorted to this technology for mass meat production. It is used only in breeding, because it allows you to copy the useful properties of individual animals and pass them on to offspring.
However, not everyone is looking for benefits in cloning. The technology is also used for the conservation of endangered species. Elizabeth Ann, a female black-legged ferret found in North America, was recently born. Today, the population of this species is about 600 individuals, but even this can be considered a miracle.
In the ‘80s, the black-legged ferret was considered extinct in the wild, until one day a dog from a Wyoming state brought a dead representative of the species to its owner. The event attracted the attention of environmentalists. On the outskirts of the farm, they found 18 ferrets and took them under their wing. But despite the fact that the animals were saved, not all of them were able to procreate. Only 7 ferrets eventually gave birth to offspring, which include all currently living individuals.
For a species that can’t boast of numbers anyway, this is a problem. The genetic similarity makes ferrets more vulnerable to diseases and parasites. Therefore, scientists have decided to diversify the genetic cocktail through cloning. Fortunately, tissue samples of several offspring have survived to this day – they were frozen in the ‘80s. Thanks to this, Elizabeth Ann was born, and in the future, she may be joined by a male clone, which will also enrich the genetic fund of American ferrets.
This is the latest story about the use of cloning technology to save animals, but it is by no means the only one. In the time since Dolly’s appearance, scientists have created copies of two species of Asian bulls (gaura and bantenga), the steppe cat, Przewalski’s horse, and other endangered mammals.
So why hasn’t the sixth mass extinction been stopped yet? Why don’t cloned animals run on the ground yet?
Auxiliary tool
The fact is that this technology, although it works, but not very effective. To create a single dolly, scientists have prepared nearly 300 eggs. So far, the technology has taken a step forward – the success rate in cloning can reach 10%.
But this is still not a high figure. Such a small share of success is due to the fact that for cloning material of two different types is taken. Scientists often do not have access to the eggs of endangered species, so they take them from domestic “relatives”: cats, dogs, cows, and even ferrets. Implantation of DNA of one species into the egg of another, albeit close, creates an unusual hybrid embryo, which does not always develop properly in the womb of a surrogate mother. Moreover, sometimes their body completely rejects such an embryo, considering some of its tissues as foreign.
Even if a cloned animal is born, it does not always survive. The same Dolly was not the only one in her brood. Then in the Scottish laboratory 5 sheep were born, but only one managed to live to adulthood. The previously mentioned Asian bull gaur, which scientists cloned in 2000, died 2 days after birth.
Probably the cause of high mortality is errors in the “reprofiling” of mature cells used for cloning. After all, despite the fact that Gerdon discovered this process in the middle of the last century, scientists do not fully understand it.
In addition, bureaucratic obstacles may arise in the way of scientists. For example, the project to clone a black-footed ferret appeared in 2013, but its authors took 5 years to obtain permission from the US Fisheries and Wildlife Service to experiment with an endangered species. And then prove that the experiment has a chance of success.
In short, it does not seem that cloning can solve the problem of the mass extinction of animals. However, some researchers see it as an additional tool in the struggle to preserve the fauna. “I’m not saying that cloning will save endangered species, but believe me that it could be another useful tool, ”said Martha Gomez, who was part of a team of scientists who cloned a steppe cat in the 2000s.
So having advanced technology in your arsenal is useful, but you shouldn’t rely on it completely, at least today. To stop the sixth mass extinction of species, humanity will have to use more traditional methods: to protect the habitat of rare species, protect them from poachers, create reserves, and so on. Otherwise, no know-how will save us from the fact that some animals will live only in pictures.
The social life of gamers around the world is over. Polish company CD Projekt RED, which developed the cult video game series “The Witcher”, has released a new project Cyberpunk 2077. Players will plunge into the world of powerful and impunity corporations, high technology that distorts human nature, and a society that withers in the stone jungle dirty cities. Approximately such a future is dictated by the laws of the cyberpunk genre. But no matter how scary this prospect may look, the real world can be much scarier by the middle of the century. Even 2077 will not have to wait.
This year, Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Kernek, UN officials dubbed the architects of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, released a book depicting a picture of a world that has triggered global warming by gravity. The authors claim that in 2050 we risk being on a planet where people live knee-deep in water, suffocate from coughing through dirty air, and faint from the 40-degree heat. States are desperately trying to conserve domestic resources by crossing borders, food is a pleasure for the rich, and genocide and disease are so commonplace that they are not even mentioned in the news.
“The extinction of the human species is discussed more often. Many people do not know only how long we will last, how many more generations will see the light of day, “- emphasize the authors of the book” The future we choose: to survive the climate crisis. “
This is not science fiction, but rather a summary of real predictions made by scientists from around the world. Here are some of these predictions.
The sea to the knee
Floods are the most devastating type of natural disaster. According to the Center for Disaster Epidemiology Research, more people have suffered from them in the 21st century than from droughts, fires, earthquakes, and other cataclysms. In 2018 alone, the number of victims was 34.2 million. But due to global warming, which is causing sea levels to rise, this number could rise almost 10-fold in just 30 years.
This disappointing forecast was given last year by experts from Climate Central, an American non-profit organization engaged in climate research. According to their estimates, today about 300 million people live in the area, which by 2050 will be at risk of annual floods. And this even if the world governments achieve some success in reducing harmful emissions.
Megacities will be on the verge of destruction. Ho Chi Minh City, Mumbai, Bangkok, Shanghai, Barcelona, Jakarta – these and other cities will face the prospect of partial flooding by the middle of the century.
The further, the situation will become more aggravated. In the second half of the XXI century, periodic floods will intensify and the ocean will begin to take away land forever. According to Climate Central, by 2100 the land, which is now home to 200 million people, will be underwater. Until then, not only cities like Venice, but entire states (Maldives, Tuvalu) can depopulate.
Life in the oven
By the middle of the century, the appearance of cities will change dramatically. And not just because they will house almost 70% of the world’s population. Climatic conditions will also be radically different. Last year, scientists at the Swiss Higher Technical School in Zurich presented a study that showed what changes to expect.
In the cities of the Northern Hemisphere it is much warmer – they seem to be moved 1 thousand km to the south. For example, the climate of London will resemble modern Barcelona, and Milanese will understand the feelings of the people of Dallas. Changes will take place in Ukraine as well. In Kyiv, the average annual temperature will increase by 3 ° C, and the hottest month of the year will warm up by almost 7 ° C. The climate of the Ukrainian capital will resemble modern Canberra. But Kyiv at least has something to compare with. According to Swiss scientists, more than a hundred major cities in the world will be in such climatic conditions, which now do not even exist on the planet.
Life in the cities will be very hot. “If you live in Paris, you suffer from heat up to 43.8 ° C every year. This event no longer hits the front pages as it did 30 years ago, ”Figueres and Rivette-Kernek wrote about life in 2050.
The Parisians will not be as bad as the people of the Gulf. According to American scientists, by the end of the century, the heat of 45° C will become the summer norm for the cities of the region, and sometimes it will reach 60° C.
Moreover, the Persian Gulf will suffer from heat waves when the humid thermometer shows 35 ° C. This method of measurement takes into account both temperature and humidity, so the figures seem lower. But don’t let that fool you. The limit of 35 ° C on a humid thermometer is lethal to humans because in such conditions the body loses the ability to cool naturally due to. It feels like 73 ° C. Such conditions will call into question the suitability of the Persian Gulf region for habitation.
Rebelled from the ice
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that man is not the king of nature. But even before the whole world rushed to fight the coronavirus, the ancient enemy of humans – bacteria – was already raising its head.
The discovery of antibiotics in the 1920s dealt a severe blow to microbes. Recently, however, people have been abusing these weapons. For example, in the United Kingdom and the United States, 20 to 25 percent of prescription antibiotics are prescribed without much need. This is one of the main factors that led to the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. They are also called super-bacteria.
In 2014, British economist Jim O’Neill analyzed the risks associated with the emergence of such microorganisms. Research has shown that today their resistance to drugs kills 700,000 people a year. By 2050, superbugs will kill up to 10 million people a year.
However, scientists are concerned not only about non-drug-sensitive creatures. Global warming is causing the permafrost to cover a quarter of the Northern Hemisphere. It is possible that by 2050, half of this cold land will thaw. At the same time, bacteria and viruses sleeping in it will wake up. These can be “old acquaintances” such as Bacillus anthracis (the causative agent of anthrax), and unknown to science species that can cause new diseases.
Paper animals
If the present century promises dawn to microorganisms harmful to humans, then the Sun sets for more massive living beings. Today there are about 8 million species of plants and animals on Earth. One million of them are endangered. For some species, extinction is a matter of decades. This is the assessment of UN experts.
Lions, tigers, gorillas, rhinos, and other representatives of the modern megafauna of the planet risk not living to the XXII century. And not to mention the many species of insects. Just imagine that your grandchildren or great-grandchildren will read about them in books, as you read about dinosaurs and mammoths. But the extinction of species threatens not only the collective pangs of conscience.
About 75% of the world’s crops depend on natural pollinators, such as bees. The disappearance of these helpers will lead to annual crop losses of up to $ 577 billion. And we should not forget about marine life. According to some forecasts, by the middle of the century humanity may run out of industrial fish stocks.
And this despite the fact that the human population of the planet is growing rapidly. According to UN forecasts, by 2050, 9.7 billion people will live on Earth. To feed them, by that time food production must grow by 25 -70%. Losing crops and marine resources in such conditions is dangerous.
All this is only part of the pessimistic forecasts of scientists. The future threatens to intensify hurricanes, mass migration from uninhabitable regions, the conversion of the Amazon rainforest, which produces 6% of the world’s oxygen, into a fire-hazardous savannah, and other tragic consequences. If humanity does not rush to reduce emissions, the planet will, to put it mildly, become a less pleasant place to live.
And while all this sounds depressing, there is a chance to avoid a climatic anti-utopia. In their book, Figueres and Rivett-Kernek also described a positive scenario in which humanity realized that the well-being of the planet depends on its own well-being. And building a safe, prosperous, and more humane world, where the fight against the apocalypse occurs only in games.
