Clone a Mammoth? Scientists Are in It for the Long Haul

Chances are slim that a woolly mammoth will be walking the earth again anytime soon, but scientists are working on it. That's the message from a new TV documentary, "How to Clone a Woolly Mammoth," about efforts to re-create the long-extinct species using genetics. Researchers are hopeful after Russian and South Korean scientists recovered a frozen woolly mammoth from Siberia's permafrost last year. The beast was so well-preserved that a reddish, bloodlike liquid oozed from its carcass when it was poked. If scientists can find an intact cell nucleus that contains the full set of DNA instructions for making a mammoth, they could insert the nucleus into an elephant egg and birth a clone that's virtually identical to the long-dead mammal.