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Should this sick professor be sacked?

(65 Posts)
gillybob Mon 21-Jan-13 13:02:37

A Harvard professor is advertising for a woman to carry and give birth to a Neanderthal baby. Just to prove it can be done.

At first I thought it was some kind of sick joke but further reading tells me this guy is fairly serious. shock

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2265402/Adventurous-human-woman-wanted-birth-Neanderthal-man-Harvard-professor.html

JessM Tue 22-Jan-13 14:21:04

j07 never one to pull your punches! You're suggesting he should be killed for making a suggestion about something that cannot currently be done?
I dont know. Was there tegwan?

Tegan Tue 22-Jan-13 14:51:48

Several cases I think. The one I heard of was due to a court case because someone had killed a bear and, if it had been a polar bear[or grizzly, not sure which] they could have been prosecuted, but it turned out to be a hybrid. Since then they have found more hybrids. But I get hybrids and sub species and such things mixed up. First Born was made in 1988 so, in it's way was way ahead of it's time.

JessM Tue 22-Jan-13 16:03:30

Right up in the far north of Canada. That's a sneaky defence isnt it.
Subspecies can interbreed and produce viable fertile offspring would be my understanding.

annodomini Tue 22-Jan-13 16:24:19

I am sure I saw something about polar bears and grizzly bears being closely enough related to interbreed. There have been several programmes recently featuring polar bears.

j07 Tue 22-Jan-13 16:32:13

Jess do you take everything that I say on here that seriously? grin

j07 Tue 22-Jan-13 16:33:02

Should have added hmm

JessM Tue 22-Jan-13 16:40:55

Yes if you don't really mean it j07 then a little emoticon would help everyone understand that. I know your just being your unique self but others, who know you less well, might think you are really want to do away with people that say silly things. grin

j07 Tue 22-Jan-13 16:43:36

Most people can manage to recognise irony.

Did you bother to read my second p[ost at all?

Why do you need everything spelt out to you? (you complain about thread titles not being explanatory enough. hmm)

Deedaa Tue 22-Jan-13 23:27:56

I think the suggestion is that as the melting ice forces polar bears to travel further in search of food they will be mixing more with grizzlies and interbreeding and the polar bear may die out and be replaced by the polar/grizzly cross.
I would dearly love to see the Dodo, the Mammoth and the Thylacine resurrected. The Thylacine is so recent that it surely must be possible one day and I haven't totally given up hope on the Mammoth. The idea of breeding a Neanderthal is horribly tempting, although I doubt that it would be possible - extracting undamaged DNA suitable for the project sounds a pretty insurmountable problem. In the unlikely event of it ever being possible I can't imagine it being allowed anywhere (Well China perhaps?)

Tegan Tue 22-Jan-13 23:50:49

On the subject of Dodo's [or Dodoes?] have you seen The Pirates in an adventure with scientists film, Deedaa. A must for dodo lovers smile. Wasn't Charles Darwin partly responsible for their demise as he probably ate them, along with everyone else?

Tegan Tue 22-Jan-13 23:54:46

Had to look up Thylacine. A marsupial wolf? It looked a bit like a dingo.

JessM Thu 24-Jan-13 17:54:36

What he really said:
www.newsdaily.com/stories/bre90n057-us-usa-neanderthal-cloning/

janeainsworth Thu 24-Jan-13 18:41:34

I was reading Red magazine at the hairdresser's this afternoon and there was an interview with Prof Brian Cox by Lauren Laverne.
Amongst other things he was talking about how different public attitudes to science in the late 18C when so many exciting discoveries were being made and science was regarded more as an extension of the Arts.
Now though science is associated in people's minds with technical warfare, nuclear bombs etc and the misreporting of this professor's words are symptomatic of that - the newspapers just like to feed people's prejudice.
Such a pity when science has done so much to enhance our lives.

JessM Thu 24-Jan-13 19:21:50

yes quite. Partly because media is dominated by people with an arts background too.