哈佛醫(yī)學(xué)院欲'復(fù)活猛犸象'

Geneticists, led by Harvard Medical School's George Church, aim to bring the woolly mammoth, which disappeared 4,000 years ago, back to life, imagining a future where the tusked ice age giant is restored to its natural habitat.

哈佛醫(yī)學(xué)院的喬治•丘奇教授率領(lǐng)的一群遺傳學(xué)家計劃復(fù)活4000年前滅絕的猛犸象，并設(shè)想未來能讓這些冰河時期的動物恢復(fù)其自然棲息地。

The efforts got a major boost on Monday, with the announcement of a $15 million investment.

該項目在9月13日宣布獲得了1500萬美元的投資。

Proponents say bringing back the mammoth could help restore the fragile Arctic tundra ecosystem, combat the climate crisis, and preserve the endangered Asian elephant.

支持這個項目的人表示，復(fù)活猛犸象可以幫助恢復(fù)脆弱的北極凍原帶生態(tài)系統(tǒng)，應(yīng)對氣候危機(jī)，還能幫助瀕危的亞洲象得以延續(xù)。

However, it's a bold plan fraught with ethical issues.

然而，這個大膽的計劃仍面臨倫理問題。

The goal isn't to clone a mammoth -- the DNA that scientists have managed to extract from the woolly mammoth remains frozen in permafrost is far too fragmented and degraded -- but to create, through genetic engineering, an elephant-mammoth hybrid that would be visually indistinguishable from its extinct forerunner.

由于科學(xué)家從凍土中冷凍的長毛猛犸象中提取的DNA太分散和退化，所以該項目實(shí)際上不是克隆，而是通過基因工程創(chuàng)造一種大象-猛犸象雜交種，只不過看起來和已經(jīng)滅絕的猛犸象相似。

Others say it's unethical to use living elephants as surrogates to give birth to a genetically engineered animal.

還有人表示，用活象作為代孕來生基因工程動物是不道德的。