Preserving the Species

Few years ago, some cognizant, good hearted and of-course "optimistic" denizens had a premonition and built a seed vault in Norway (just in case our over-zealousness decimates all of us).

I always loved and believed in Immanuel Kant's famous quote - "Two things fill my mind with ever new and increasing wonder and awe, the more often and persistently I reflect upon them: the starry heaven above me and the moral law within me... I see them in front of me and unite them immediately with the consciousness of my own existence".

In-spite our human dissonances, I still believe in the perseverance of goodness by some fellow humans fueled by that impeccable morality. This has enabled us to come this far as a civilization and will continue to do so and preserve against all odds.

Even if we fail to preserve what needs to be preserve, someday we will revive most of the species (unfortunately, we cannot undo the suffering). It's time to do the same for animals what we already with plants/seeds (btw it's not only about morality but it's in our self preservation as well. So this also counts for those driven by self-interest alone.). It's better to be safe than sorry. Here's a beautiful science behind it - instead of relying on cloning using cells from body tissue, lets start preserving eggs and sperms.

"Many people trying to increase populations of endangered species are turning to something called Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT). This is the method that brought us Dolly, and works by sucking out the nucleus of a normal somatic cell (meaning a body cell rather than a gamete like a sperm), and sticking it in the cell body of an ovum, which has had its nucleus removed. The nucleus of sperm and eggs are haploid, meaning they only have half their normal compliment of genetic material, while somatic cell nuclei are diploid (it occurs to Sci that she's gonna have to explain meiosis some day...). Once the ovum has a full compliment of genes (which usually means that a sperm has joined up with it) it will begin to divide to produce a new animal.

But in the case of SCNT, the sperm never shows up. Instead, the ovum nucleus is replaced with a somatic cell nucleus which is diploid, having the full number of genes, and the cell is stimulated with an electric shock, to fool it that the right stuff has taken place. The ovum will then begin to divide, and if all goes well, you get Dolly, or your species of choice.The issue is now where to get the somatic cell."