Wanted: An “extremely adventurous female human” ...
Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2013 11:20 am
...to give birth to a Neandertal
God I love scienceGerman magazine Der Spiegel has just published an interview with geneticist George Church in which he talks about his work as a biologist and his idea of making humans resistant to all viruses. But he also addresses a topic we've discussed before: The idea of cloning a Neandertal.
Church, the author of Regenesis: How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and Ourselves, is a pioneer in synthetic biology and was a key player in the mapping of the human genome. He has also helped to set up around two dozen biotech firms.
When speaking with Der Spiegel, he mentioned that we'll soon have the capacity to clone a Neandertal. "We can clone all kinds of mammals," he said, "so it's very likely that we could clone a human. Why shouldn't we be able to do so?"