You can now listen to Ryan Phelan’s TED Talk “Intended Consequences of Helping Nature Thrive” on the Apple Podcast TED Talks Daily by clicking here or finding it wherever you listen to podcasts. In her talk, Ryan makes the case for embracing the “intended consequences” of genetic tools that have the power to restore Earth’s balance, abundance, and biodiversity rather than letting fear of “unintended consequences” stifle innovation and progress. You can learn more about her TED Talk here or at TED.com.
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Dovetail Genomics and Revive & Restore welcome you to CGS 2021! This virtual conference will feature six scientists actively using genomics approaches to aid species conservation and will be of interest to anyone focused on species conservation and/or interested in functional genomics for non-model organisms. Registration is free and can be done online by clicking here.
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In order to address our world’s biodiversity crisis, we must explore every tool available to save species from extinction. This is the message of a new TED Monterey talk by Ryan Phelan, CEO of the nonprofit Revive & Restore. In her talk, titled “Intended Consequences of Helping Nature Thrive”, Ryan makes the case that we cannot allow a fear of unintended consequences to stifle our innovation and exploration of high-impact tools to prevent extinctions. Ryan shares real-world examples of conservation successes thanks to the use of biotechnology. The concept of “Intended Consequences” encourages all of us to recognize and weigh...
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Published September 15, 2021 By Julian Koplin and Christopher Gyngell US startup Colossal Biosciences has announced plans to bring woolly mammoths, or animals like them, back from extinction and into the frosty landscape of the Siberian tundra. Colossal has received US$15 million in initial funds to support research conducted by Harvard geneticist George Church, among other work. The proposed project is exciting, with laudable ambitions — but whether it is a practical strategy for conservation remains unclear. Link to article
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By Scott Neuman Published on September 15, 2021 Using recovered DNA to "genetically resurrect" an extinct species — the central idea behind the Jurassic Park films — may be moving closer to reality with the creation this week of a new company that aims to bring back woolly mammoths thousands of years after the last of the giants disappeared from the Arctic tundra. Link to article
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By Carl Zimmer Published on September 13, 2021 A team of scientists and entrepreneurs announced on Monday that they have started a new company to genetically resurrect the woolly mammoth. The company, named Colossal, aims to place thousands of these magnificent beasts back on the Siberian tundra, thousands of years after they went extinct. Link to article
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By Michael Greshko Published September 13, 2021 A new startup co-founded by Harvard geneticist George Church wants to use cold-adapted elephants to remake the Arctic tundra—raising major scientific and ethical questions. Harvard geneticist George Church has co-founded a new company with an audacious goal: engineer an elephant that resembles the extinct woolly mammoth. The company, named Colossal, aims to use woolly mammoth DNA to make a hybridized Asian elephant that could thrive in Arctic climates. Link to article
It was in 2013 that Seth Willey, a regional recovery coordinator with the US Fish And Wildlife Service, contacted Revive & Restore with the following email. You never know how impactful ideas may become, so always send that email! From: Seth Willey Sent: Tuesday, June 18, 2013 9:20 AM To: Ryan Phelan, Stewart Brand Subject: Outside the box question Hello Ryan Phelan and Stewart Brand, My name is Seth Willey. I work for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Endangered Species program. I understand through media reports that your organization is working to revive lost species and conserve existing ones....
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This post is written by Dr. Lara Urban, PI for the takahē project, as part of our Wild Genomes banking and sequencing program. Fieldwork to count the number of wild takahē takes place in the remote Murchison Mountains where the species was rediscovered in 1948. A blood sample is taken from the takahē chick “Kohika.” Her DNA will serve as the basis of the reference genome. Kohika means "ancestor" in Māori, a name that acknowledges her important role in the conservation of the entire species. A party of juvenile takahē. Blood samples of the 84 to-be-sequenced individuals were collected in...
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This post was written by James Osborne, on his blog, A Mammoth Task. On August 6th, 2020, a male foal called Kurt was born at the San Diego Zoo. Kurt is a Przewalski’s horse, and he is a clone. The once desperately endangered subspecies of horse - spectacularly recorded by the artists of the palaeolithic - has been under the looming threat of extinction since it was first scientifically categorised in the 19th century. In the 1960s the subspecies became extinct in the wild as the last of its dwindling population was confined to breeding programmes in captivity. The worry...
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