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CNN reports that scientists in Japan were able to produce mice clones from the cells of dead mice that had been frozen for sixteen years. The findings give scientists hope that they may someday be able to produce a living clone of extinct species that died thousands of years ago - such as a wooly mammoth.

Researchers had thought that frozen cells were unusable because ice crystals would have damaged the DNA. That belief would rule out the possibility of resurrecting extinct animals from their frozen remains.



But the latest research — published in the journal, Proceedings for the National Academy of Sciences — shows that scientists may have overcome the obstacle.



Researchers at the Riken Center for Developmental Biology in Kobe, Japan, used cells from mice that had been frozen for 16 years at -20 Celsius (-4 degrees Fahrenheit).



They extracted the nucleus and injected it into eggs whose DNA had been removed. Several steps later, the scientists were able to clone the mice.

It’s too early to say if this will lead to some scientists creating the kind of incredible park filled with dangerous predators that Michael Crichton wrote about in Jurassic Park - as Geekologie discusses. It’s probably going to be the Mammoth that scientists try to bring back first - and there is already at least one group of scientists that plans to do so.



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You can see Rome as it looked in 320 AD with Google’s new Ancient Rome 3D Layer. Here’s some of what you can do with the Ancient Rome 3D layer.

• Fly into Rome as it looked in 320 A.D.
  
• Tour the interior of famous buildings.
  
• Visit the sites in 3D such as the Roman Forum, Colosseum and the Forum of Julius Caesar.
  
• Learn about how the Romans lived.
  

Below is a video that shows you some of the buildings and provides an introduction to its Ancient Rome layer. The Google Earth Blog has a detailed description of this very cool new Google Earth offering.

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Astronaut Don Pettit created this amazing video by animatiing a sequence of still images he shot of the aurora borealis from the International Space Station. (via Dot Earth)

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The BBC reports that Mark Witton, a University of Portsmouth researcher, has identified a new species of pterosaur. The flying dinosaur named Lacusovagus had the wingspan of a car. It also had a particularly wide skull.

Mark Witton estimated that the pterosaur had a wingspan of 16.4ft (5m) and would have been more than 39in (1m) tall at the shoulder.



The partial skull fossil, found in Brazil, is the first example of a chaoyangopteridae, a group of toothless pterosaurs, to be found outside China.



Mr Witton said: “Some of the previous examples we have from this family in China are just 60cm (2ft) long - as big as the skull of the new species.



“Put simply, it dwarfs any chaoyangopterid we’ve seen before by miles.”

Lacusovagus means lake wanderer - the specimen was found in a large body of water. Mark Witton has posted a photograph of Lacusovagus and written a detailed description of the newly discovered beast here on Flickr. Love the headline he used: “You?re dirty, sweet and you’re my girl.”



Photo: Mark Witton



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Lonesome George, the last surviving of the Pinta Island subspecies of giant Galapagos tortoise, has come up short on producing any offspring. Lonesome George was paired with two females and a number of eggs were laid but none of them contained embryos. Lonesome George is just 90-years-old so if he is not infertile then he might have more chances at fertilizing a viable egg. A Telegraph article gives hope that the infertile eggs could have been the result of a diet or captivity issue.

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Over a thousand new species have been discovered over the last decade in the Greater Mekong region. Some of the more bizarre creatures include a dinner-plate sized spider and a hot pink dragon millipede. The says the millipede can produce cyanide to protect itself from predators.

At least 1,068 new species were identified in the Greater Mekong from 1997 to 2007 along with several thousand tiny invertebrates, the Times reports.



Annamite striped rabbits, or Nesolagus timminsi, with black and brown fur, were discovered in Vietnam and Laos in 2000 and are only the second species of striped rabbit to be identified.



Among the most bizarre to be discovered was a hot-pink, spiny dragon millipede, Desmoxytes purpurosea.



The millipedes have glands that produce cyanide to protect them from predators.

Another amazing discovery is the Laotian Rock Rat thought to have died out 11 million years ago. The Telegraph has eleven pictures of the new species here. You can also find more information at Discover Magazine, BBC, WWF, Sky News and TheStar.com.



Posted in Animals



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There are many dolphins in this video. It’s quite a view. How fantastic it would have been to have been on the boat surrounding by all those dolphins. (hat tip Buzzfeed)

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New Scientist has an amazing gallery of snowflake photographs taken by Kenneth Libbrecht of CalTech. Kenneth Libbrect used a specially-designed snowflake photomicroscope. The photographs show real snow crystals that fell to earth in northern Ontario, Alaska, Vermont, the Michigan Upper Peninsula, and the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. You can see the gallery here.



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If the economy isn’t depressing enough for you then watch this asteroid impact video that is making its way around the Internet. A large enough asteroid impact could be devastating to our planet. NEAT is the NASA division that attempts to track Near-Earth asteroids that could potentially cause great harm to the Earth and the human race.

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A recent earthquake swarm at Yellowstone park ignited fears that the Yellowstone caldera could explode in a devastating supervolcano. Bloomberg reports on the swarm and quoted geophysics professor Robert Smith who says the Yellowstone quake swarm is not an indicator of an imminent threat.

Earthquakes are common in Yellowstone, which averages 1,000 to 2,000 tremors a year, and its 10,000 geysers and hot springs are the result of geologic activity, the Salt Lake City-based university said in a statement on its Web site. The park covers sections of Wyoming, Idaho and Montana.



“This is not any indicator” of an imminent threat, Robert Smith, a professor of geology and geophysics, said in a telephone interview from Jackson Hole, Wyoming. “It’s part of the ongoing activity of Yellowstone being an active and alive volcanic system.”



The university’s network of 28 seismographs in the area started picking up the tremors on Dec. 26, and more than 250 quakes have been recorded since then — including nine greater than magnitude 3.0 and about 24 between magnitude 2.0 and 3.0. Some visitors have reported feeling the quakes.

The Yellowstone caldera will explode someday but it could be tens of thousands of years from now. More on the earthquake swarm here, here and here. The website for the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory can be found here.



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