28,000-year-old mammoth cells have shown reactivity in mouse egg cells

It might be geographic proximity to Siberia and thus abundance of research material, which drives some funding to do more research which then drives more funding, etc.

Stepping stone on the way to making Godzilla a thing...

Or possibly just an abundance of biology graduates who need something to do.

Probably because they are the two most proximate advanced nations to much of siberia where these mammoths are found. Also, korean and japanese universities might have scientific funding and research agreements with their russian counterparts.

Hmm, that might be something for a wildlife park. Just make sure that they can't escape. Put the park on an island in the pacific just to be sure.

Maybe, just maybe, they can make mammoths big as mice and maybe a minified Jurassic Park so politicians will not get scared and say "this things are killing us". Imagine the mammoth pet...awww

They make for good PR and are truly extinct; recent extinctions have the potential to be a little less cut-and-dry.

We'll need the research if we ever try to bring back species that went extinct in modern times.

I saw a program on discovery channel a while back on how resurrecting mammoths would help with preserving the permafrost.

Edit: A related article: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/shanephipps/2017/06/20/mammoth...

Yes, see my other comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19393869

Why not both efforts? Let's try stop the extinction but let's also face the reality that there are a lot of forces working against that effort so maybe a little practice is good?

Although there may be some, such as the same techniques being used to de-extinct other more recent species, I think a certain amount of it is "because it's there", and that the irrational desire to accomplish such an outlandish thing may provide motivation and funding from corners that otherwise wouldn't do so.

I think it was Jack Horner who was trying to reverse engineer a chicken back into a velociraptor and said something to the effect of that he didn't feel that his efforts would do anything to help humanity, but that the science justified itself, because it was what he wanted to do, to see if it was possible.

Of course, with that story, we have a great series of movies to tell us how it probably ends...

There are many better candidates, like the Passenger Pigeon or Dodo, which were extincted recently and directly by humans.

If we want to pause extinction we need to pause population growth (because more people means encroachment into wilderness and resource extraction). Climate change is a smaller concern when it comes to immediate effect on endangered species survival.

On the other hand there isn’t much we can do about it, unless you’re India or China who can control population via policies (economic, reproductive and cohercive).

Naturally pops will decline, but that’s decades ahead.

Can this not be the top comment?

I don’t know about you guys but I want an exciting future to look forward to. Space travel, and fantastic cloned animals!

let’s get something hopeful and inspiring up here.

Well, like programming and robotics, you often need a "problem" to solve to advance your practical skills. The mammoth project is pretty wicked in the sense that the problem focuses efforts to build skills. It's a holy grail project for DNA work. The skills gained in trying to resurrect the mammoth can be applied to myriad other needs, right?

If you understand French, watch this: https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/078777-000-A/siberie-les-avent... you'll be convinced.

If you don't: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleistocene_Park

Basically we need them for an earth-scale experiment that will try to prevent the permafost from unfreezing, thanks to ruminant eating the grass through the snow, thus breaking the snow insulation that prevents the ground from re-freezing deep in winter. If the permafrost do unfreeze, I believe the climate is doomed.

edits: typos

In addition to what other have said, I think the part mammoths play in pop culture plays a huge part here. Nobody would be (or rather is as those already exist) interested in some worm frozen worm or even the equally interesting woolly rhino, cave hyena or giant elk. I think its a combination of our fascination in elephants as huge animal with an astonishing social structure very like us and the fact that mammoths once not so long ago (once again, egyptian pyramids are older) played an important role in our (northern europe and asia where most of the research is coming from) history, after all there are many cave paintings depicting mammoths. As such, I think this research is not so much biological research but rather a big social historic project where we recreate what once was.

That, the point that the involved techniques may prove valuable in other projects and because mammoths once played an important role as mega herbivorous in steppes of the northern hemisphere (which were once as species rich as the African savanna and we know the touristic attraction of that)