A surrogate mother for a Neanderthal is a blooper of journalists
Translation error:
a Harvard professor is not looking for a surrogate mother for the birth of a Neanderthal
The British newspaper The Daily Mail wrote on January 20 that Church allegedly came close to recreating the DNA of a Neanderthal, and the next step in his research may be the revival of one of the representatives of these ancient people, who presumably died out 33 thousand years ago, reports Newsru.com .
According to the authors of the article, Church is allegedly already looking for a "brave woman" who would agree to become the mother of a Neanderthal. This "news" was immediately picked up and replicated by many world media, ITAR-TASS notes.
Meanwhile, the American newspaper The Boston Herald decided to "dig" deeper, asking the scientist about the details of the study. The article in the Daily Mail was based on an interview given by Church to the German weekly Spiegel.
As Church told the Boston Herald, the confusion probably arose due to the incorrect translation of this interview into English.
According to the scientist, in fact, he only stated that cloning a Neanderthal could theoretically become possible someday.
"Of course, I'm not promoting this. I just want to say that if it is ever possible from a technical point of view, we need to start talking about it today," Church explained.
He stressed that he did not even take part in determining the nucleotide sequence of Neanderthal DNA – a project that, according to scientists, helped to find out that traces of the genes of these ancient people are present in the genome of modern humans.
Church noted that his research focuses mainly on the use of genetics to improve the quality of medical care and the production of synthetic fuels and materials, rather than recreating ancient human species.
The Daily Mail (and many other publications that hastened to reprint the "sensation" – VM) has already published a new article on its website, in which the necessary amendments have been made.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru23.01.2013