This news story had me almost in tears: Northern White Rhinos: San Diego rhino has died
Essentially it looks as if there are maybe a dozen Northern white rhinos left alive. In total. Worldwide.
Twelve.
And after that, no more. Ever.
Think about it. Then realise that for this species it really is too late for us to do anything.
*shakes head in sadness and helplessness*
if only DNA were modular there would be a simple solution to all this.
It would be a simple matter of borrowing individual fingerprints from other species… i.e. the random entropy left over in the DNA that makes an individual unique and not an identical clone of every other member of the species.
e.g. 6.75 billion humans all with different fingerprints. Humans volunteer to donate DNA entropy to a rhino (or whatever) cloning farm. Cloned rhino is not a clone of the original rhino because the entropy is different.
Unfortunately DNA doesn’t quite work like that.
Damn those differing numbers of chromosomes per species, and genes coding for more than one thing at once!
</crackpot>
I’ll pass that on to a genetic scientist I med in India and see what she reckons.
I’ll also pass it on to the nice men with the buckle-up jackets and comfy ambulance…