I’m not entirely sure what the career trajectory is supposed to be after ‘never show your face in the scientific establishment again.’ So it’s fascinating to watch a guy who lost everything for falsifying data be like “no for real this time I’m gonna do some world changing cloning.”
With an extinct species.
Today’s Moment of science… a mammoth of a task.
South Korean researcher Hwang Woo-Suk completed his PhD in theriogenology (the study of animal reproduction) in 1982. He did a lot of super important and impressive things in the field early on, and was even deemed ‘the pride of Korea’ at one point.
His research included advancing cloning methods for cows and pigs. To give you an idea of how far we’ve come with cloning, it took 277 attempts to make one Dolly the sheep. Now, clones are successfully brought to term in about four out of five cases. In 2005, Hwang cloned the first puppy, an Afghan hound named Snuppy, using a similar process to that which created Dolly.
So, here’s where shit takes a turn.
In 2005, Hwang and his team claimed they’d cloned human embryos and created stem cells lines from them, which was huge. They’d allegedly created eleven stem cell lines with a new technique his lab had developed.
I’m not sure how little of that is true.
The allegations start with the lab procuring the eggs for the embryos unethically, from female colleagues and employees possibly through coercion. Then there was an allegation that he’d received falsified data from one member of his team. Then there was the allegation that he’d falsified data himself.
I’m sure some attempt at science happened. But also I can’t figure out if anybody so much as lifted a goddamn test tube.
What’s clear is that there was no successful creation of eleven stem cell lines from cloned human embryos. He was charged and found guilty of embezzlement and bioethical violations. Interestingly, he was cleared of fraud.
All of this turned skepticism on Hwang’s other work, but intense scrutiny confirmed that he did indeed clone that dog.
Even with his reputation in the gutter, we so quickly forgot absofuckinglutely everything that happened in the aughts. Remember gauchos? Me neither.
He’s still the guy whose company can clone your dearly departed pup (for the low low price of just $100k). After you get acclimated to the stank on his reputation, if you want certain tasks done in the world of cloning, he’s the guy for the job.
For Russian researchers at North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk, the task they wanted him for was resurrecting the woolly mammoth.
We’ve had access to unearthed mammoths before, but any DNA we had was pretty banged up. In 2013 in Siberia, a fucking treasure of a mammoth was uncovered, with blood and muscle tissue remarkably well preserved. The downside is that several thousand millennia of cosmic radiation will fuck up some DNA, but this time? The DNA was far less degraded than typical. There was sufficient mammoth building material here.
So far, the road to cooking up a woolly mammoth hasn’t been without controversy, lawsuits, and just plain fuckery. It also has been without a mammoth.
When Hwang’s research to try to reanimate mammoth cells stalled, he partnered with Park Se-pil’s lab at Jeju National University. Park’s work was much more successful, but they went into that collaboration with no preconditions. Hwang demanded that the cells be turned over, claiming sole rights to the cells that Park’s team created. Park was like “that’s nice, pity I don’t have to give them to you.”
Hwang’s team attempted to sue before backing off. Subsequently, he was investigated for maybe perhaps bringing in bits of mammoth to South Korea without signing all the necessary paperwork.
Semyon Grigoryev, the scientist who unearthed the mammoth, passed away last May. Hwang expressed deep grief, in a long statement offering “it is utterly difficult for me to believe and accept the information I received(…) My team and I vow to do our best to continue his work and reach our common goal.”
It’s difficult to find the particulars of where the research is at this point, both in terms of where on Earth it’s being conducted and how far along it is. But please, take some odd thrill that right now, somewhere, scientists are toiling away in a lab with the dream of resurrecting the woolly mammoth. And they might just succeed.
This has been your daily Moment of Science, hearing the voice of Dr. Ian Malcolm in my head for some reason.
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