Scientists are talking about how a "living mammoth could perhaps be regenerated for as little as $10 million," reports the NYT. Regenerated? One scientist says it "could work," although it would probs be "tedious and expensive," as regenerating long-extinct animals tends to be. But that is far from the most disturbing piece of reanimation news: there's an ominous "workaround" technique to turn chimps into Neanderthals. Don't say we didn't warn you.

Dr. Church said there might be an alternative approach that would “alarm a minimal number of people.” The workaround would be to modify not a human genome but that of the chimpanzee, which is some 98 percent similar to that of people. The chimp’s genome would be progressively modified until close enough to that of Neanderthals, and the embryo brought to term in a chimpanzee.

“The big issue would be whether enough people felt that a chimp-Neanderthal hybrid would be acceptable, and that would be broadly discussed before anyone started to work on it,” Dr. Church said.

How "minimal" would the "alarm" be? Chimp-Neatherthals, guys? Anyone?

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