how to clone a mammoth the science of de extinction

Everyone loves mammoths and enjoys playing with the idea of seeing their lumbering, impressive forms back on earth, and Shapiro is a mammoth expert.

This book has been widely reviewed and the author widely interviewed. A short book, it sets out to provide a road map for de-extinction, in three parts: how we might make the decision about what species or traits to resurrect, how this might be done technically and biologically, and how to manage populations of engineered individuals once they are released into the wild. Into this commotion comes the first book I am aware of that takes on the issue seriously. The emerging field has drawn intense journalistic and public interest, with philosophical, ideological and practical objections and assertions battling over something that has not yet happened. The possibility of de-extincting species is being taken seriously and IUCN has commissioned a working group to develop guidelines for the conservation application of de-extinction.

It was truly a revolutionary thought! The chance to consider de-extincting species is only possible as a result of a remarkable decrease in the cost of reading and writing DNA, together with the creation of a set of innovative tools for manipulating the structure of DNA. ‘Extinction is not forever’ was the phrase that caught my attention when I first heard about the developing initiatives to bring back extinct species.

How to clone a mammoth the science of de extinction