{"id":52769,"date":"2026-03-15T10:06:27","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T10:06:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=52769"},"modified":"2026-03-15T10:06:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T10:06:27","slug":"can-scientists-really-resurrect-the-dodo-inside-the-company-that-says-they-can-us-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2026\/03\/15\/can-scientists-really-resurrect-the-dodo-inside-the-company-that-says-they-can-us-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Can scientists really resurrect the dodo? Inside the company that says they can | US news"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\"><span style=\"color:var(--drop-cap);font-weight:500\" class=\"dcr-15rw6c2\">C<\/span>an and should we resurrect animal species that have been extinct for thousands of years? Such weighty, existential questions were once the preserve of science fiction but are now being played out within an unassuming brick building in a Dallas business park.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Colossal Biosciences, valued at $10.2bn after raising hundreds of millions of dollars in funding from investors including celebrities spanning from Tiger Woods to Paris Hilton, has provoked a stampede of acclaim as well as denunciation after announcing last year it had made the dire wolf, a species lost from the world for more than 10,000 years, \u201cde-extinct\u201d via the birth of three new pups.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The company said it will also bring back the woolly mammoth within the next two years, to be followed by that totem of extinction, the dodo. Colossal is doing this by sourcing ancient DNA from fossils and gene editing, making analogies with Jurassic Park easy to conjure. It\u2019s a comparison that Colossal\u2019s chief executive, Ben Lamm, doesn\u2019t shy away from.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cI don\u2019t mind the Jurassic Park comparison because we get it a lot,\u201d said Lamm, a 44-year-old billionaire who met with the Guardian in his office, which is adorned with statues of a mammoth and a brontosaurus (dinosaur DNA is, despite Jurassic Park\u2019s depiction, too old to use for de-extinction). He and several of his staff wore black T-shirts with a heavy metal-like font reading \u201cDirewolf\u201d, along with a picture of the wolf and the words \u201coriginal tour 8500BC, encore performance 2025\u201d.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"a289763d-022a-4579-a2e0-0754af1f3ff1\" data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" data-spacefinder-type=\"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.ImageBlockElement\" class=\"dcr-173mewl\"><figcaption data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" class=\"dcr-fd61eq\"><span class=\"dcr-1inf02i\"><svg width=\"18\" height=\"13\" viewbox=\"0 0 18 13\"><path d=\"M18 3.5v8l-1.5 1.5h-15l-1.5-1.5v-8l1.5-1.5h3.5l2-2h4l2 2h3.5l1.5 1.5zm-9 7.5c1.9 0 3.5-1.6 3.5-3.5s-1.6-3.5-3.5-3.5-3.5 1.6-3.5 3.5 1.6 3.5 3.5 3.5z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><span class=\"dcr-1qvd3m6\">Ben Lamm, founder and CEO of Colossal Biosciences, in New York City in 2024.  <\/span> Photograph: Andrew Kelly\/Reuters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Jurassic Park \u201ctaught a large population of people, including non-scientists, that there\u2019s this thing called DNA and humans now can change it\u201d, Lamm added. \u201cNow, the movie goes terribly wrong because it\u2019s a dystopian movie about hubris. But at the end of the day, I think it did a lot more right than did wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"731eca97-b081-43b9-b125-c2ed6f1da751\" data-spacefinder-role=\"richLink\" data-spacefinder-type=\"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.RichLinkBlockElement\" class=\"dcr-47fhrn\"><gu-island name=\"RichLinkComponent\" priority=\"feature\" deferuntil=\"idle\" props=\"{&quot;richLinkIndex&quot;:6,&quot;element&quot;:{&quot;_type&quot;:&quot;model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.RichLinkBlockElement&quot;,&quot;prefix&quot;:&quot;Related: &quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Wolf\u2019s dinner preserved in Siberia for 14,400 years sheds light on woolly rhino&quot;,&quot;elementId&quot;:&quot;731eca97-b081-43b9-b125-c2ed6f1da751&quot;,&quot;role&quot;:&quot;richLink&quot;,&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/science\/2026\/jan\/14\/wolf-cub-preserved-permafrost-woolly-rhino&quot;},&quot;ajaxUrl&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/api.nextgen.guardianapps.co.uk&quot;,&quot;format&quot;:{&quot;design&quot;:10,&quot;display&quot;:2,&quot;theme&quot;:0}}\"\/><\/figure>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The extinction crisis, where life on Earth is being wiped out at up to 1,000 times the natural rate due to human actions, stirs a \u201cmoral obligation\u201d to respond, Lamm said. Colossal\u2019s eye-popping announcements in the past year are helping \u201cparents in middle America care about conservation and also get excited about science\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The nerve center for this technologically adroit \u2013 and to some, controversial \u2013 work is Colossal\u2019s relatively new 55,000 sq ft space in north-western Dallas. At Colossal\u2019s reception area, which features an animatronic dire wolf and a model of a mammoth encased in fake tundra and wreathed in fog from dry ice, your Guardian reporter was asked to surrender his phone to avoid capturing images of the lab work that goes on here.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">In the lab space, serried ranks of white-coated scientists work on isolating ancient DNA of extinct species and then using Crispr technology to edit the genomes of extant, closely related animals. For the dire wolves, 14 out of 19,000 gray wolf genes were edited to make the hybrid offspring snow-colored, as well as larger and more cold resistant than standard gray wolves.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Tweaking the traits of species in this way is simpler for some animals than others. Colossal is trying to resurrect the thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, the last of which died in an Australian zoo in 1936. The closest living relative to the thylacine, which resembled a large striped dog, is the fat-tailed dunnart, which looks like a shocked mouse. While both are, in fact, marsupials, the challenge of superimposing one upon the other will probably take more than a million different gene edits and several more years of toil.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"edb62cb3-301a-45ee-8861-6fc3c865d527\" data-spacefinder-role=\"showcase\" data-spacefinder-type=\"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.ImageBlockElement\" class=\"dcr-5h0uf4\"><figcaption data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" class=\"dcr-9ktzqp\"><span class=\"dcr-1inf02i\"><svg width=\"18\" height=\"13\" viewbox=\"0 0 18 13\"><path d=\"M18 3.5v8l-1.5 1.5h-15l-1.5-1.5v-8l1.5-1.5h3.5l2-2h4l2 2h3.5l1.5 1.5zm-9 7.5c1.9 0 3.5-1.6 3.5-3.5s-1.6-3.5-3.5-3.5-3.5 1.6-3.5 3.5 1.6 3.5 3.5 3.5z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><span class=\"dcr-1qvd3m6\">A mammoth installation in the lobby of the Colossal Bioscience offices, in an image provided by the company.<\/span> Photograph: Courtesy of Colossal Biosciences<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Birds are more even more difficult as they cannot be cloned from samples of skin or hair like mammals, most famously Dolly the sheep, can. Undeterred, Colossal is attempting to revive the dodo, which humans wiped out nearly 400 years ago, and the moa, a startlingly huge flightless bird, up to 12ft in height, that disappeared from New Zealand a couple of centuries prior to that.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Colossal has cultivated primordial germ cells \u2013 the embryonic precursors to sperm and eggs \u2013 from the pigeon, the closest relative to the dodo. For the moa, the nearest existing match is the emu. In a room adjoining the main lab, incubators hold pigeon and moa eggs, the latter being enormous and green, as scientists with microscopes and steady hands plunge instruments into openings in the shells.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">For such innovations, Colossal has been garlanded with praise and attention (the company has festooned clippings of global press coverage across the walls of one room \u2013 one headline from the UK\u2019s Daily Star on the dire wolf births reads \u201cJurassic Bark\u201d). \u201cThe fact that we have as much support as we do is kind of crazy given what we\u2019re doing is so polarizing,\u201d Lamm acknowledged.<\/p>\n<p><gu-island name=\"InteractiveBlockComponent\" priority=\"critical\" deferuntil=\"idle\" props=\"{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/interactive.guim.co.uk\/embed\/from-tool\/looping-video\/index.html?poster-image=https%3A%2F%2Fuploads.guim.co.uk%2F2026%2F03%2F13%2Fcolossal.jpeg&amp;mp4-video=https%3A%2F%2Fuploads.guim.co.uk%2F2026%2F03%2F13%2FColossal_Lab_B-Roll_Selects-clip_(1).mp4&quot;,&quot;scriptUrl&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/interactive.guim.co.uk\/embed\/iframe-wrapper\/0.1\/boot.js&quot;,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;A woman in a white lab coat extracts something from a tube in a laboratory.&quot;,&quot;format&quot;:{&quot;design&quot;:10,&quot;display&quot;:2,&quot;theme&quot;:0},&quot;elementId&quot;:&quot;8256efa6-1480-42c1-8ca8-102e5df67328&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;Egg processing, in a video provided by Colossal Biosciences. &quot;,&quot;isMainMedia&quot;:false}\" data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\"><\/p>\n<figure id=\"8256efa6-1480-42c1-8ca8-102e5df67328\" class=\"element element-interactive element--inline element-inline dcr-w422y2\" data-alt=\"A woman in a white lab coat extracts something from a tube in a laboratory.\" data-testid=\"interactive-element-A%20woman%20in%20a%20white%20lab%20coat%20extracts%20something%20from%20a%20tube%20in%20a%20laboratory.\" data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\">A woman in a white lab coat extracts something from a tube in a laboratory.<figcaption data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" class=\"dcr-fd61eq\"><span class=\"dcr-1inf02i\"><svg width=\"18\" height=\"13\" viewbox=\"0 0 18 13\"><path d=\"M18 3.5v8l-1.5 1.5h-15l-1.5-1.5v-8l1.5-1.5h3.5l2-2h4l2 2h3.5l1.5 1.5zm-9 7.5c1.9 0 3.5-1.6 3.5-3.5s-1.6-3.5-3.5-3.5-3.5 1.6-3.5 3.5 1.6 3.5 3.5 3.5z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><span class=\"dcr-1qvd3m6\">Egg processing, in a video provided by Colossal Biosciences. <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><\/gu-island><\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">But there are scientists who doubt whether this is de-extinction at all, with some damning Colossal as an empty generator of hype and little else. \u201cThey made genetically modified gray wolves, not dire wolves \u2013 to say they are dire wolves is entirely arrogant,\u201d said Vincent Lynch, an expert in evolutionary developmental biology at the University at Buffalo. \u201cYou can\u2019t put a mutation into a related species and call that thing the extinct thing. You can\u2019t bring things back in the way Colossal are doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">What makes a species a species is a philosophical as well as scientific question, but Colossal\u2019s definition is one that \u201chasn\u2019t been used since Plato\u201d, said Lynch, who has been involved in public spats with the company and has been attacked, along with fellow critics, in online articles (Colossal says it has no involvement in this).<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cThey say if it looks like the thing then it\u2019s the thing, but we haven\u2019t used that definition for a long time,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd yet they keep calling the damn thing a dire wolf. Ben Lamm is a tech bro who thinks technology can solve the world\u2019s problems, but de-extinction isn\u2019t going to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">While it\u2019s possible to modify a species\u2019 appearance, the behavior of extinct animals is a more unknowable variable. The new gray wolves\/dire wolves aren\u2019t being released into the wild, but the dodos, thylacines and wooly mammoths, the latter created from gene-edited Asian elephants, will be, with the hope they will perform the same ecological functions, such as predation, seed dispersal and carbon storage, that were stripped from the environment when they became extinct.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"f2ebb327-4532-482c-ac49-d690253b001f\" data-spacefinder-role=\"showcase\" data-spacefinder-type=\"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.ImageBlockElement\" class=\"dcr-5h0uf4\"><figcaption data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" class=\"dcr-9ktzqp\"><span class=\"dcr-1inf02i\"><svg width=\"18\" height=\"13\" viewbox=\"0 0 18 13\"><path d=\"M18 3.5v8l-1.5 1.5h-15l-1.5-1.5v-8l1.5-1.5h3.5l2-2h4l2 2h3.5l1.5 1.5zm-9 7.5c1.9 0 3.5-1.6 3.5-3.5s-1.6-3.5-3.5-3.5-3.5 1.6-3.5 3.5 1.6 3.5 3.5 3.5z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><span class=\"dcr-1qvd3m6\">This undated handout image courtesy of Colossal Biosciences shows the company\u2019s dire wolf pups Romulus and Remus at 15 days old.<\/span> Photograph: Colossal Biosciences\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Ecosystems are dynamic places, though, and they too evolve and adapt even as humans increasingly decimate wildlife through pollution, hunting, habitat loss and the climate crisis.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">When we blunderingly introduce species to new places, such as lanternflies or the rats that helped see off the dodo, we tend to call them \u201cinvasive\u201d and harmful. Dodos and thylacines could well slot back into their landscapes but mammoths, lost since the end of the last ice age around 10,000 years ago, would \u201ccause an incredible amount of drama\u201d, according to Julie Meachen, a Des Moines University paleontologist who helped crack the dire wolf genome.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cHaving mammoths in Alaska or Canada near human settlements would be asking for disaster,\u201d she said. \u201cIf they come into town will you shoot them? If they are instead held in a glorified zoo will you just sell tickets to rich people to ogle them? What would be the point? Mammoths would modify the habitat \u2013 they are a keystone species \u2013 but we don\u2019t have a good idea how we\u2019d coexist with them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">We are \u201cso far from understanding\u201d the traits of extinct species and the complex way they altered their surroundings, according to Victoria Herridge, a paleontologist at the University of Sheffield, who added she is \u201cshocked\u201d that Colossal is forging ahead with using elephants as a surrogate for mammoths. (Lamm said this task is on track for 2028 following the creation of mice with mammoth-like hair, but that the utmost care will be taken with elephants: \u201cWe\u2019re not going to inspire many kids if we kill a bunch of animals.\u201d)<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Even if gene editing does successfully reinstitute lost beasts with disputed nomenclature, Colossal\u2019s critics fret that this could further erode endangered species protections already under attack by the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress. Why bother to do much to protect a threatened species, after all, if we can just revive it later, Lazarus-style?<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cIf we\u2019re going to be in anguish about losing a species, now we have an opportunity to bring them back,\u201d Doug Burgum, Trump\u2019s secretary of the interior, said last year. \u201cPick your favorite species and call up Colossal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">This sort of talk creates a \u201cmoral hazard\u201d that substitutes habitat protection and hunting bans with speculative tech fixes, Lynch claimed, similar to concerns that geoengineering the planet, including dimming the sun, in response to the climate crisis could reduce pressure on polluters to stop polluting in the first place.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"66f88cca-7c27-4201-897f-15097a6bc386\" data-spacefinder-role=\"showcase\" data-spacefinder-type=\"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.ImageBlockElement\" class=\"dcr-5h0uf4\"><figcaption data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" class=\"dcr-9ktzqp\"><span class=\"dcr-1inf02i\"><svg width=\"18\" height=\"13\" viewbox=\"0 0 18 13\"><path d=\"M18 3.5v8l-1.5 1.5h-15l-1.5-1.5v-8l1.5-1.5h3.5l2-2h4l2 2h3.5l1.5 1.5zm-9 7.5c1.9 0 3.5-1.6 3.5-3.5s-1.6-3.5-3.5-3.5-3.5 1.6-3.5 3.5 1.6 3.5 3.5 3.5z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><span class=\"dcr-1qvd3m6\">Colossal Biosciences\u2019 lab, in an image provided by the company.<\/span> Photograph: Courtesy of Colossal Biosciences<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Lamm said Burgum\u2019s comments were mischaracterized and that Colossal has stressed to the administration the importance of retaining habitat to avoid further extinctions, with technology aiding, rather than replacing, this process.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201c[Burgum] is a huge Teddy Roosevelt guy, he\u2019s a big conservationist and he\u2019s very, very deep in with the Indigenous people of America,\u201d Lamm said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cHe told us when we were with him that animals must come off the endangered species list through recovery. And his issue with the Endangered Species Act is we put animals on there and they don\u2019t come off because we have not prioritized technologies or ways to get them off, not by removing them, but because they have recovered.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The criticism over what to call Colossal\u2019s species is a largely semantic argument which pales next to the prospect of losing up to 1m of the world\u2019s species from extinction, Lamm added. \u201cI frustrate some of those critics because if people want to call our wooly mammoths wooly mammoths, I\u2019m happy with that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cIf they want to call them cold-tolerant Asian elephants with edited mammoth alleles across the 1.4m, here\u2019s the genetic divergence, using Crispr, I\u2019m fine with that too. It doesn\u2019t affect me. Their choice of what they call an animal doesn\u2019t affect our work, our mission.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cLook, in every aspect of life, you got A teams and B teams,\u201d Lamm said of his critics. \u201cSometimes people don\u2019t make the cut and they\u2019re JV and they don\u2019t make the varsity team and they\u2019re going to be a little frustrated by that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Beth Shapiro, an evolutionary molecular biologist who is Colossal\u2019s chief scientist, has had to get used to becoming a lightning rod in the scientific community \u2013 she recently had to deal with a minor verbal onslaught from another scientist at a conference \u2013 but is still baffled by the focus on species definition, rather than the functions of Colossal\u2019s technology in conservation.<\/p>\n<p><gu-island name=\"InteractiveBlockComponent\" priority=\"critical\" deferuntil=\"idle\" props=\"{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/interactive.guim.co.uk\/embed\/from-tool\/looping-video\/index.html?poster-image=%20https%3A%2F%2Fuploads.guim.co.uk%2F2026%2F03%2F11%2Fbone.jpeg&amp;mp4-video=https%3A%2F%2Fuploads.guim.co.uk%2F2026%2F03%2F11%2Fclip-Colossal_Team_B-roll_-_Beth_Shapiro_Dec_2025.mp4&quot;,&quot;scriptUrl&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/interactive.guim.co.uk\/embed\/iframe-wrapper\/0.1\/boot.js&quot;,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;A woman in a mask with a routing tool and a bone &quot;,&quot;format&quot;:{&quot;design&quot;:10,&quot;display&quot;:2,&quot;theme&quot;:0},&quot;elementId&quot;:&quot;bd435d88-40e6-4d87-8d2a-39e78cedd681&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;Beth Shapiro, an evolutionary molecular biologist who is Colossal\u2019s chief scientist, in a video provided by Colossal Biosciences.&quot;,&quot;isMainMedia&quot;:false}\" data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\"><\/p>\n<figure id=\"bd435d88-40e6-4d87-8d2a-39e78cedd681\" class=\"element element-interactive element--inline element-inline dcr-w422y2\" data-alt=\"A woman in a mask with a routing tool and a bone \" data-testid=\"interactive-element-A%20woman%20in%20a%20mask%20with%20a%20routing%20tool%20and%20a%20bone%20\" data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\">A woman in a mask with a routing tool and a bone<figcaption data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" class=\"dcr-fd61eq\"><span class=\"dcr-1inf02i\"><svg width=\"18\" height=\"13\" viewbox=\"0 0 18 13\"><path d=\"M18 3.5v8l-1.5 1.5h-15l-1.5-1.5v-8l1.5-1.5h3.5l2-2h4l2 2h3.5l1.5 1.5zm-9 7.5c1.9 0 3.5-1.6 3.5-3.5s-1.6-3.5-3.5-3.5-3.5 1.6-3.5 3.5 1.6 3.5 3.5 3.5z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><span class=\"dcr-1qvd3m6\">Beth Shapiro, an evolutionary molecular biologist who is Colossal\u2019s chief scientist, in a video provided by Colossal Biosciences.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><\/gu-island><\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cI was surprised by some of the pushback, but if you don\u2019t want to call them a dire wolf, that\u2019s fine, I don\u2019t care,\u201d Shapiro said. Many species are on a rapid path to extinction if nothing else is done, she added, requiring thought-out but also drastic interventions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cIf you\u2019re not controversial, you\u2019re not pushing hard enough, right?\u201d she said. \u201cIf we just stick with what everybody is comfortable with, then we\u2019re just going to keep it with the status quo and we know that the status quo is not good enough.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The splashy PR and headlines surrounding Colossal evokes thoughts of rewilded mammoths, dodos and other handpicked faunal icons churned out to turn the clock back on a damaged and denuded planet. But while this prospect has garnered attention and funding, Colossal\u2019s true impact will likely be in the less glamorous work to stave off extinction in existing species.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Its gene editing technology could bring back genetic diversity to creatures like red wolves, which have shrunk to a population of barely two dozen, formulate a vaccine to prevent a deadly virus in Asian elephants and make quolls, a marsupial in Australia, resistant to the toxins released by invasive cane toads that have spread across the country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cI actually think that is going to be the broader application of these technologies,\u201d Shapiro said. Colossal \u201cat its core is a species preservation company\u201d, the business wrote in a submission to the International Union for Conservation of Nature last year. \u201cUltimately, we recognize that no project can perfectly reconstitute an extinct species or replicate past ecosystems. Instead, we interpret \u2018de-extinction\u2019 as a practical gateway to develop next-generation conservation tools.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">There is a financial upside in expanding this scope of this tech for Colossal, too \u2013 five separate spin-off companies have started or are in the works, ranging from an effort to combat plastic pollution to a startup that will work in what Lamm calls the \u201cnational security\u201d space.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"365a7a33-25c5-4776-9d32-4663783d718b\" data-spacefinder-role=\"showcase\" data-spacefinder-type=\"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.ImageBlockElement\" class=\"dcr-5h0uf4\"><figcaption data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" class=\"dcr-9ktzqp\"><span class=\"dcr-1inf02i\"><svg width=\"18\" height=\"13\" viewbox=\"0 0 18 13\"><path d=\"M18 3.5v8l-1.5 1.5h-15l-1.5-1.5v-8l1.5-1.5h3.5l2-2h4l2 2h3.5l1.5 1.5zm-9 7.5c1.9 0 3.5-1.6 3.5-3.5s-1.6-3.5-3.5-3.5-3.5 1.6-3.5 3.5 1.6 3.5 3.5 3.5z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><span class=\"dcr-1qvd3m6\">A hallway at Colossal Biosciences\u2019 Dallas building, in an image provided by the company.<\/span> Photograph: Courtesy of Colossal Biosciences<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cMy science brain does think, \u2018Urgh, I\u2019m not into sensationalism,\u2019 but I understand why they have tried to inspire wonder in the general public,\u201d said Meachen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cThe true good work Colossal is doing is injecting genetic variation into organisms that are struggling. It\u2019s not as sexy as de-extinction, but it can keep populations viable, and that to me is more important. Genetic editing can be a tool in the toolbox, although if there are no places for these species to live then they won\u2019t survive, even if we edit all of their genes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">For now, though, most of the attention is still drawn to the wonder. On various large wall-mounted screens in the Colossal office, footage shows the three \u2018dire wolf\u2019 pups that were unveiled last year \u2013 two males named Romulus and Remus and one female named Khaleesi, a nod to the Game of Thrones universe that made dire wolves more widely known \u2013 frolicking in snow.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Peter Jackson, the Lord of the Rings director and another Colossal investor, is a collector of movie and TV memorabilia including \u201cthe Iron Throne\u201d, the royal seat made of melted swords in Game of Thrones. Jackson suggested the pups be photographed on the throne, just their latest brush with fame after being presented to George RR Martin, author of the books upon which the HBO series is based.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cHanding a dire wolf puppy to George and saying, \u2018This is the first dire wolf in 12,000 years\u2019 \u2013 I mean, that\u2019s one of those insane moments in your life where you go, \u2018How the hell did I get here?\u2019\u201d said Matt James, Colossal\u2019s chief animal officer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Martin emitted some \u201cvery overemotional sort of stuttering and then said, \u2018You guys brought back the dire wolf,\u2019\u201d James said. \u201cIt was incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#scientists #resurrect #dodo #company #news<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Can and should we resurrect animal species that have been extinct for thousands of years? Such weighty, existential questions were&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52769"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52770,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52769\/revisions\/52770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}