They’ve done it! Stephen Schuster and his amigos have successfully sequenced the full wooly mammoth genome, which comes in at over four billion DNA bases.

Webb Miller said,

We have shown that it’s possible for small groups of scientists to sequence entire genomes.

The group responsible for the sequencing was still mum on whether or not they would attempt to resurrect this great shaggy beast as some would like. The idea shows some promise. Miller said of the proposed future rise of the mammoth that:

I used to say that would be stupid and impossible, but I’m not saying that anymore.

Previous OS mammoth news can be found here.

One project completed, the team plans to move on to their next species: the Tasmanian Devil. You heard me. It’s a real animal, and quite cute too.  Apparently, all those Tazs Down Under have been falling ill with a particular type of cancer, known as Devil Facial Tumor Disease. Schuster and the group want to sequence the genome in the hopes of saving the species from extinction. The team, known as the Mammoth Genome Project PSU, has been featured in The New York Times and likely will be again in the future. Now, if only our renewable energy scientists developed something as newsworthy as mammoth resurrection. Something like that, at least, would help the planet, but then again, there’s nothing that sells newspapers better than bringing things back from the dead or Barack Obama.