Startup Raises $200 Million To 'De-Extinct' the Woolly Mammoth, Thylacine and Dodo (venturebeat.com) 115
An anonymous reader quotes a report from VentureBeat: Colossal BioSciences has raised $200 million in a new round of funding to bring back extinct species like the woolly mammoth. Dallas- and Boston-based Colossal is making strides in the scientific breakthroughs toward "de-extinction," or bringing back extinct species like the woolly mammoth, thylacine and the dodo. [...] Since launching in September 2021, Colossal has raised $435 million in total funding. This latest round of capital places the company at a $10.2 billion valuation. Colossal will leverage this latest infusion of capital to continue to advance its genetic engineering technologies while pioneering new revolutionary software, wetware and hardware solutions, which have applications beyond de-extinction including species preservation and human healthcare.
"Our recent successes in creating the technologies necessary for our end-to-end de-extinction toolkit have been met with enthusiasm by the investor community. TWG Global and our other partners have been bullish in their desire to help us scale as quickly and efficiently as possible," said CEO Colossal Ben Lamm, in a statement. "This funding will grow our team, support new technology development, expand our de-extinction species list, while continuing to allow us to carry forth our mission to make extinction a thing of the past." Here's a summary of the startup's progress on its efforts to bring back the woolly mammoth, thylacine and the dodo:
Woolly Mammoth De-extinction Progress
- Generated chromosome-scale reference genomes for elephants and the first de novo assembled mammoth genome
- Acquired and aligned 60+ ancient mammoth genomes and 30+ genomes of extant elephant species, improving mammoth-specific variant accuracy
- Derived pluripotent stem cells for Asian elephants, advancing reproductive technologies essential for de-extinction
Thylacine De-extinction Progress
- Created a 99.9% complete ancient genome for the thylacine using long-read and RNA sequencing
- Assembled telomere-to-telomere genomes of dasyurid species to understand evolutionary relationships and support conservation of marsupials
- Progress in genomics and reproductive technologies positions Colossal ahead of schedule on critical de-extinction steps
Dodo De-extinction Progress
- Completed high-coverage genomes for the dodo, its relatives, and the critically endangered manumea
- Developed tools for avian genome engineering, including techniques for craniofacial gene-editing and primordial germ cell cultivation
- Significant advances in avian-specific genetic techniques are driving progress toward dodo restoration and bird conservation
"Our recent successes in creating the technologies necessary for our end-to-end de-extinction toolkit have been met with enthusiasm by the investor community. TWG Global and our other partners have been bullish in their desire to help us scale as quickly and efficiently as possible," said CEO Colossal Ben Lamm, in a statement. "This funding will grow our team, support new technology development, expand our de-extinction species list, while continuing to allow us to carry forth our mission to make extinction a thing of the past." Here's a summary of the startup's progress on its efforts to bring back the woolly mammoth, thylacine and the dodo:
Woolly Mammoth De-extinction Progress
- Generated chromosome-scale reference genomes for elephants and the first de novo assembled mammoth genome
- Acquired and aligned 60+ ancient mammoth genomes and 30+ genomes of extant elephant species, improving mammoth-specific variant accuracy
- Derived pluripotent stem cells for Asian elephants, advancing reproductive technologies essential for de-extinction
Thylacine De-extinction Progress
- Created a 99.9% complete ancient genome for the thylacine using long-read and RNA sequencing
- Assembled telomere-to-telomere genomes of dasyurid species to understand evolutionary relationships and support conservation of marsupials
- Progress in genomics and reproductive technologies positions Colossal ahead of schedule on critical de-extinction steps
Dodo De-extinction Progress
- Completed high-coverage genomes for the dodo, its relatives, and the critically endangered manumea
- Developed tools for avian genome engineering, including techniques for craniofacial gene-editing and primordial germ cell cultivation
- Significant advances in avian-specific genetic techniques are driving progress toward dodo restoration and bird conservation
Doesn't feel right somehow (Score:3)
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I think I saw a documentary in the late 90s, "so preoccupied with how they could, they didn't think they should" or somesuch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Luckily, the first generation will at most get this instead:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
KITTY! (Score:2)
Kitty! [duckduckgo.com]
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Kitty is cute, but sadly this bunch of charlatans won't help her.
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Just because a thing can be done doesn't mean it should.
We have no evidence at present that the thing claimed here can be done. It is an idea that many people believe will eventually be possible, but nothing like what they are claiming they are raising money for has ever been shown to be possible. Most likely this start-up, like so many others in tech, is intended to pay the organizers fat salaries while they burn up the VC funding.
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It's ok, we will just make sure to they can't produce lysine, so they will be forever dependent on us for it. Should they escape and go rampaging through a populated city, eventually they will die from lysine deprivation, and everything will be fine.
Raphus cucullatus (Score:5, Insightful)
It's ok, we will just make sure to they can't produce lysine, so they will be forever dependent on us for it. Should they escape and go rampaging through a populated city, eventually they will die from lysine deprivation, and everything will be fine.
They're not 36 foot tall, intelligence-enhanced Dodos.
They were hunted to extinction because they were unafraid of humans. And we introduced other species that ate all their chicks and eggs. Including: Sailors brought animals to the island, including: Monkeys, Dogs, Rats, and Pigs. So never mind the exogenic amino acids. If there's trouble, we can just do some more generic engineering. A MonkeyDog or RatPig ought to take are of things.
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I used to work in computational biology and bioinformatics, but my fingers were programmed decades before that for "generic" rather than "genetic".
Maybe with the AI craze I could fix it by doing some genetic programming...
PREVIEW buttons are for chumps anyway.
Re: Raphus cucullatus (Score:2)
Or a Hyena-Swine from the island of Dr Moreau for the best results.
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Don't forget the six-assed monkey!
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It was a Jurassic Park reference.
Maybe it was too subtle.
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We got the reference. Maybe the return joke was too subtle, because you didn't think it was funny, and it was modded Insightful (not funny). /. is unpredictable that way....
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They won't 'de-extinct' anything. There will be insufficient genetic diversity to produce a breeding population. There will be no wild adults to raise the young as their species would have done while it still lived.
What they might get is some interesting lab animals to study, maybe a zoo exhibit or two.
Re:Doesn't feel right somehow (Score:5, Insightful)
The genetic diversity would be an issue. Zoo exhibit would be the target for the foreseeable future. Still, it isn't that bad.
Okay, the three animals listed are the Dodo, Thylacine, and Woolly mammoth.
Had to search to find out what the Thylacine was like.
In the Dodo's case, it should be relatively easy - I figure that it'd be like a chicken, have most of what's necessary in instinct. Worst case, you do the raptor thing where they raise it using puppets.
Woolly mammoth - everything I've read says that they're mostly similar to elephants. So, assuming that we use an elephant as a surrogate mother, she can train the baby on zoo-related living at least.
Thylacine - Raise by hand in zoos, if you actually get enough to want to release them into the wild, accept a multi-generational training effort.
I'll note that I'd place de-extincting a species at closer to $2B or more, not $200M for 3. The latter is barely enough for preparatory efforts like collecting up as much genome information as you can get.
Billionaires' pets (Score:2)
Zoo exhibit would be the target for the foreseeable future.
Also unusual pets for extravagant billionaires would be another use.
Also a very exclusive and very expensive zoo (those investors will want ROI at some point).
I'll note that I'd place de-extincting a species at closer to $2B or more, not $200M for 3. The latter is barely enough for preparatory efforts like collecting up as much genome information as you can get.
Probably:
- multiple other rounds of funding will follow, but you need the preparatory effort to show that the next round is doable.
- actually de-extincting a specie won't happen until governments jump in.
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I'll note that I'd place de-extincting a species at closer to $2B or more, not $200M for 3. The latter is barely enough for preparatory efforts like collecting up as much genome information as you can get.
From the summary, it sounds like they already have a trove of genetic information. But yeah, it will still cost well over $200M.
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You lack imagination my friend. The way chicken farms are run these days the dodo sounds like it would work out perfectly. No wild adults or significant genetic diversity required. Though I imagine we can come up with some techniques for creating genetic diversity.
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You would be better off just gene editing bigger chickens. They weren't particularly good to eat. I've previously seen them described as boney and gamey. The article below notes that the meat was described at the time as 'offensive and of no nourishment.'
https://www.sciencefocus.com/n... [sciencefocus.com]
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The way chicken farms are run these days the dodo sounds like it would work out perfectly.
Dodos eat expensive nuts and fruit, not cheap grain.
They also had a gamey taste, and sailors complained that the meat smelled like urine.
Mammoths, on the other hand, were delicious.
We can raise mammoths in Greenland after the war with Denmark.
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Oh yeah? I assumed the dodos must have been tasty based on how quickly we wiped them out.
Still, you do make an excellent point about Mammoths. They were supposedly our prime food source until we ran out.
Denmark lol Let's be real, there are only three nations strong enough to stand on their own and Denmark definitely isn't one of them. The rest have autonomy at this point ONLY because the US shelters them from the other two; both of which are expansionist dictatorships who engage in mass scale human rights a
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There will be no wild adults to raise the young as their species would have done while it still lived.
If you hatch a bird and it doesn't have any parents, you feed it through a dropper, possibly dressed up as a mother bird if you're getting elaborate. (But people do this all the time with budgies, and they don't make any pretense of a parent.) AFAIK the birds turn out just fine. Even if you release them into their natural habitat. I don't know if this works well for predator birds, but I think the dodo is more like a budgie or a chicken.
I agree that it is questionable whether you're going to wind up with a
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I think the dodo is more like a budgie or a chicken.
Dodos are most closely related to pigeons.
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They won't 'de-extinct' anything. There will be insufficient genetic diversity to produce a breeding population. There will be no wild adults to raise the young as their species would have done while it still lived.
What they might get is some interesting lab animals to study, maybe a zoo exhibit or two.
Hmm. Sounds oddly familiar. Didn’t we humans write a Jurassic-era Park story literally warning humanity about the dangers of assuming to exactly this level of ignorance?
And we sit around feverishly developing AI, while assuming it simply cannot morph into Skynet..
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The thylacine is an interesting one, but I remember some time ago reading an explanation why it's going to be extremely difficult. The animal became extinct only about 100 years ago, and there are constant rumors that wild animals may still exist. It was extant only on the island of Tasmania, and about a third of that island is essentially untraversed and untouched forest. It could well exist, but since no one has made a positive sighting, extremely unlikely.
Now for the tricky part. The thylacine is a marsu
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It would be expensive, of course, but raise the baby in an incubator shaped like a pouch with an artificial nipple hooked up to an appropriate milk or milk substitute.
Have a human occasionally open the pouch to expose the baby's bottom and wipe it with a warm wet cloth.
A more relaxed version of this is how orphaned baby kangaroos are raised. They apparently don't need the heat of an incubator.
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There will be insufficient genetic diversity to produce a breeding population.
We have the remains of thousands of mammoths.
We have hundreds of thylacine pelts.
There are many preserved dodo feathers and skeletons.
There will be no wild adults to raise the young
Mammoths are closely related to Asian elephants, which will serve as gestational mothers and raise the calf.
What they might get is some interesting lab animals to study, maybe a zoo exhibit or two.
Cool.
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"They won't 'de-extinct' anything. There will be insufficient genetic diversity to produce a breeding population. "
Genetics can MAKE that diversity, no problem at all.
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I actually wonder if introducing diversity might be a job for AI.
Re:Doesn't feel right somehow (Score:5, Informative)
I get an uneasy feeling about this. It's like something out of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, on a genomic level.
If God wanted us to deliberately genetically engineer, he would have given us Agriculture and animal husbandry.
Re: Doesn't feel right somehow (Score:2)
The old Cro Magnon man from 20k years ago had neither.
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But but that's a conspiracy right? Because the Earth didn't exist 20k years ago?
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I think he's saying Cro-Magnon grew wheat and fucked goats.
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His brothers who walked the other direction did. They made a habit of throwing food scraps to friendly wolves. His other brothers who stopped walking in the "holy land" did the same thing with some four legged omnivores and started keeping some herbivores in pens rather than chasing after them.
Re-Extinction Always an Option (Score:2)
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I get an uneasy feeling about this. It's like something out of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, on a genomic level.
We're just adding another layer to the number of warnings science fiction has provided us that we're determined to use as a roadmap rather than a warning. Another line in the sand that was drawn and ignored. It's almost like we've set our sights on our own downfall, and we're determined to bring it about by any means necessary. If someone succeeds with this type of thing, some moron will decide it's a good idea to bring back Earth's greatest predators. Megalodon and Spinosaurus should make fine additions to
Who approves this stuff? (Score:4, Insightful)
I can't believe the amount of money & the number of projects almost guaranteed to fail that attract big money.
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People look up to Elona, who made a killing just by peddling "cult classics" cliches and smart "investment" in election purchases.
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Well, most *tech* projects fail; if you "probably will fail" rules out funding then very little gets funding. It's not necessarily technical reasons; sometimes the money dries up and it's not your fault. Sometimes you end up making a product that for unforeseen reasons people don't buy it.
Although I dunno on that last point. it kind of "stands to reason" that people would find resurrected mammoth tasty...
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From what I know about Church, he's basically the Tom Cruise of biotech startups. I wouldn't bet against this team.
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The wealth imbalance in America is so extreme that regular people have no readily available mental pictures that are appropriate for gauging bank balances with so many zeros.
It's li
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I can't believe the amount of money & the number of projects almost guaranteed to fail that attract big money.
Maybe we should start saying “I cannot believe how many people need jobs”, since failed projects guarantee at least that for the foreseeable future. Some don’t look beyond the foreseeable, and therefore find value in failed ventures.
Theres also the issue of taxes. Rich people prefer funding write-offs more than they do paying taxes. Even if the venture is pointless, it’s more entertaining than paying taxes.
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Huh? How is it guaranteed to fail? It's not implausible. I'm sort of in this field, while they will definitely need a breakthrough or two (specifically they will need to figure out in-vitro gametogenesis -- which we can do in mice, but can't get to work in primates and elephants -- though that from lack of trying hard. Nothing they are proposing is in the realm of impossible -- just difficult. Challenging, but not impossible. They'll need to hire the right people though. It's very easy to F it up, I'll give
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This is a waste of money (Score:5, Insightful)
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"Just because something is theoretically possible is not a reason to do it."
No but some day we might have need to do it and our chances of succeeding are much higher if we've done it before. That's a reason to do it.
"This is a waste of money that would be better spent preserving existing species."
Why preserve existing species?
"There is no natural habitat for the three species anymore, so all they would ever be is zoo displays."
They could also have use as agricultural animals. Sign me up for kentucky fried d
Re:This is a waste of money (Score:4, Insightful)
No but some day we might have need to do it and our chances of succeeding are much higher if we've done it before.
For example, suppose aliens show up trying to communicate with humpback whales and they've gone extinct...
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I think the bigger issue will be finding a functional Klingon Bird of Prey. And transparent aluminum.
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True, but it shouldn't be too hard to find the LDS.
Re: This is a waste of money (Score:2)
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I think the bigger issue will be finding a functional Klingon Bird of Prey. And transparent aluminum.
That last one has been solved. And as far as we know, Scotty didn't try talking to the mouse to make it happen. [wikipedia.org]
Re: This is a waste of money (Score:2)
Fred Flintstone Finally Found!
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No natural habitat? Not true. (Score:2)
The habitats they inhabited still exist - unless you think Tasmania has undergone radical enviromental change since the 1930s in the case of the thylacine. Even the mammoth could probably still survive in northern siberia.
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Re: No natural habitat? Not true. (Score:2)
Yes. All three were driven to extinction by us, not their enviroment. HTH.
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Many of the techniques that are developed for "de-extinction" ARE used to help preserve existing species.
The problem with preservation is that it doesn't generate as much buzz, so they can't get the same level of funding.
It's basically a marketing scheme.
They must show progress with their de-extinction efforts, so they can continue receiving funding.
But the real goal is likely to help preserve biodiversity.
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Yummm (Score:3)
I cannot wait to eat each one of these on a bun or in a casserole -- the possibilities for culinary advancement are endless! Well worth the $200 million+
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Fur burgers at the drive through!
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Environmental impact of a herd of mammoths? (Score:1)
If people are complaining about the environmental impact of cows, then these mammoths will be 20x worse.
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It's positive actually, something about promoting grass vs trees in tundra regions.
Population Size Matters (Score:2)
YABBA DABBA DO! (Score:2)
Being tasty is what made cows so successful.
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Being tasty is what made cows so successful.
Being tasty and easy to farm is what made them successful. Just being tasty doesn't tend to work out well [wikipedia.org].
Sweeeet (Score:2)
Natural order (Score:1)
By all means, let's try to mess with natural order. Introduce/reintroduce species where they don't belong (Mongoose, Eucalyptus trees, bees/wasps, shellfish... we can go on).
Nothing can possibly go wrong.
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"where they don't belong"
What does that actually mean? Its almost as if you believe there is an absolute correct that we can compare against.
we have lots of raptor dna as well (Score:2)
we have lots of raptor dna as well
Trump's grand project (Score:2)
Jerkassic Park
NATURE took care of this (Score:1)
So where you believe in Darwinism or a God, either way something caused these creatures to cease their existence on this planet.
Bringing them back suggest as one other post has sadi "Mary Shelley's Frankenstien" but Frankenstein was the doctor's name and Franenstein's Monster is what he/she meant... OR bringing a creature doomed to die back to life.
Today's environment is not the same. Creatures of the wild don't all "adapt" to Zoos. I'm oversimplifying but that's what you do when you respond to a BeauHD
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Thylacine - Wiped out by humans because they were perceived as a threat to livestock.
Dodo - Wiped out by human introduced livestock and companion animals.
Mammoths - Hunted heavily by human, not helped by climate changes.
If our ongoing impact on this biosphere is anything to go by, nature isn't taking care of shit all.
Tasts like... (Score:2)
Genetic diversity and walking around acting like a dodo in some habitat is not the goal here. What will pay for this is the exotic experience of eating a once-endangered species. Because apparently dodo was delicious!
Say, this is making me thirsty.
Do you have a cokie-mokey?
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"Seafarers who ate dodo meat, described it as tough and unpleasant. They called the dodo ‘walchvögel’ or ‘repulsive bird.’"
This was after months at sea eating wormy hardtack.
https://www.sciencefocus.com/n... [sciencefocus.com]
Maybe they can genetically enhance the taste and get a tropics tolerant turkey variant.
Meanwhile ... (Score:2)
thousands of species are going extinct, lost forever every year, because we destroy and pollute habitats and simply ruin this planet, the only one we will ever have (despite remarks from idiots like Musk).
200 Million for amusement while the tragedy goes on.
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thousands of species are going extinct, lost forever every year, because we destroy and pollute habitats and simply ruin this planet, the only one we will ever have (despite remarks from idiots like Musk).
200 Million for amusement while the tragedy goes on.
Sure, but $200M is like what, one wing of an F35? I know where I'd rather see the money spent.
Another hyperloop? (Score:2)
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Why? (Score:2)
Okay but why (Score:2)
Are they going to allow bioengineered species to be released into the wild? I doubt it. Are we going to be eating buttermilk dodo burgers? I doubt it.
So are they going to sell bioengineered animals to zoos and themeparks? Possibly but I could see a massive ethics firestorm and are these things going to be genetically diverse enough to breed or will they simply drop dead from some genetic "killswitch" and require the zoo order another batch from this company?
Or maybe the company doesn't give a damn about the
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Of course not. It's a bird. It is best served fried with a light breading. I am getting hungry just thinking about some fried Dodo.
One Question (Score:2)
I mean, really. Why?
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Apparently they believe there will be a huge market for the carbon offset credits associated with sponsoring these critters,
Also artificial placentas, which... Yuck, but we'll have to wait and see.
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Why? I mean, really. Why?
because if this information doesn't exist before AI accidently wipes out all of humanity how will they repopulate the earth?
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Knowledge.
It's a fascinating field and we're learning a lot.
Ethical? (Score:2)
I mean either you let them roam free which immediately would make them endangered species...
Or you breed them for the zoo.
Seems narcissistic to me.
What about bacteria and other stuff not in DNA? (Score:2)
Babies don’t develop in a sterile bubble relying only on their own DNA. While in the womb, it’s possible they already come into contact with some microbes from the mother, though the extent of this is still under research. During birth and through breastfeeding, they definitely acquire a variety of bacteria and other microorganisms that help establish their gut flora and overall microbiome. These microbes each have their own genetic makeup, separate from the baby’s DNA, and play a key role
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This is GM research (Score:2)
If you're going to bring back the mammoths anyway (Score:1)
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de-mamoth (Score:1)
A fool and his money (Score:2)
are quickly parted.
I wouldn't't want to be a mammoth walker (Score:2)
IThe first time your pet drops a load as you amble by the golf course, how exactly bro you pick up after it? Call a dump truck?
I don't understand people (Score:2)
One of the more shocking public surveys I've ever seen found that the majority of people would not pay $100 to see a live dinosaur.
Now this thread is filled with comments against this project, from "frankenstein" to "why bother".
I truly don't understand people.