by Ben Novak Current research on microbiomes reveals that an organism’s microbiota are co-evolved with the host species, but not to a point of specificity that is problematic between related organisms (such as one kind of pigeon in relation to…
by Ben Novak On October 8th, 2013, Ryan Phelan, Stewart Brand, and I were graciously allowed to view a historic moment at Genentech Hall of the University of California San Francisco‘s Mission Bay campus. We were in the sequencing facility…
by Ben Novak In 1871 along the east shore of the Don River, a Canadian named William S. W. Grainger witnessed a flock of North America’s most common birds: passenger pigeons. As Grainger harvested a decent female pigeon from the flock…
by Ben Novak The extinction of the passenger pigeon has challenged our conceptions of nature for a century. The bird that was “too numerous to go extinct” disappeared in a decade, leaving only skins and mounts in museum collections and…
“My name is Sean and I am a first year biology major with an emphasis in wildlife biology. Ever since I was a kid learning about the reintroduction of wolves as a keystone species I have made it my goal…
Revive & Restore (a project of The Long Now Foundation) is seeking an entrepreneurial Project Coordinator to help us expand this bold initiative—to bring back extinct species and to apply genomic solutions to species on the brink of extinction. The…
Throughout humankind’s history, we’ve driven species after species extinct: the passenger pigeon, the Eastern cougar, the dodo … But now, says Stewart Brand, we have the technology (and the biology) to bring back species that humanity wiped out. So —…