De-extinct our future
This article was originally shared on Substack.
Colossal Biosciences, biotech and genetic engineering company specialising in de-extinction science, recently announced the appointment of Emily Castel as their Chief Marketing Officer.
This is interesting because Emily Castel has an extensive background as a leader in the entertainment industry and her purview involves using this background and the entertainment medium to communicate Colossal's mission and de-extinction sciences to hopefully, make it mainstream.
And we do very much like science communication in this house. Not just for kids, but for everyone else who participates in our society as well.
Why should I care?
But why should we care about de-extinction science when the first thing Colossal tends to get asked is "You have seen Jurassic Park, haven't you?".
We should care because, as Ben Lamm said in The Hollywood Reporter, it's also about conservation education, and the kinds of science that will contribute to bringing back the woolly mammoth, Tasmanian tiger (thylacine), and dodo (Colossal's flagship projects) will also contribute to developments in extinction prevention as well as conservation.
Scientific ripples
As a small sampling of the possible ripple effects, de-extinction science uses CRISPR, which will also allow us to better understand DNA, not just for the mammoth, thylacine, and dodo, but for the animals related to these being used in the de-extinction process1, and it could have an impact on our overall understanding of other animals with a close genetic distance, and who knows what may come out of the work in growing our understanding of DNA and gene editing which in turn could help prevent other species from becoming extinct from a biotechnological perspective.
As an aside, Ben mentioned at SXSW Sydney 2023 that Colossal has been invited to be a part of the project to save the Northern White Rhino, of which there are only two left in the world and both female, so they're functionally extinct. And it wouldn't be a stretch to consider that the technologies used and advancements made could also be used to help repopulate other species with reduced numbers such as those close to extinction or say, decimated in the Australian bushfires.
Depending on what is learned in this process there is also the potential to contribute to advancing CRISPR's use in areas like personalised medicine, which can help eventually make this type of tailored healthcare more accessible to all. You also can't discount the potential for serendipitous discoveries, avenues of research that could lead in other directions, or applications others may come up with in completely different areas of focus.
The bigger picture
In terms of conservation, the reintroduction of de-extincted species into the wild also isn't just a matter of dropping them in and hoping for the best. Environments are systems and it will involve systems thinking to rewild species.
We'd need to have a good understanding of the land and its ecosystem and biodiversity as it would have been when the species was first present, whether that was 100 or 1000 years ago, the changes that occurred since they were removed, and the way it stands now. We'll also be able to understand the hypothetical and the reality of how reintroducing the species will affect the balance of biodiversity of flora as well as fauna which can contribute to other conservation efforts in related or unrelated ecosystems.
It's also not just about the science. The broader scope of this work involves things like animal ethics as well as consultation with the traditional custodians of the land. It is a full STEAM effort because you're working with systems that are the land, plants, animals, and people together.
It’s all connected, and there’s a lot of breadth, so in my next issue, I'll talk about some of the other aspects of conservation that may not be directly related to Colossal's work but illustrate how de-extinction forms just a part of the greater systems matter of conservation.
STEAM Powered
This week’s STEAM Powered is with Professor Gretchen Benedix, a cosmic mineralogist and astro-geologist who used the pinball methodology to craft her career, chases fireballs, and studies space rocks to understand how the solar system evolved.
Quite Interesting
If you need more interesting than de-extinction science, check out the Desert Fireball Network which I speak about with Gretchen. It’s part of a network of autonomous digital observatories called the Global Fireball Observatory that watches the skies for fireballs to help with the recovery of meteorites that land on Earth.
I’m also going to mention Daring Fireball, a tech blog by John Gruber who co-created the markup language Markdown with Aaron Swartz2. As a tech person, Daring Fireball is one of the things that Is Known(TM), but in this context, it’s because while I was editing, I had to constantly stop myself from writing and thinking Daring Fireball instead of Desert Fireball. I have likely thought more about Daring Fireball in the last few weeks than I normally do in a year.
On a completely different note, The Waffle House Index fascinates me as a metric. The Waffle House is a chain of restaurants in the US known to be open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year as well as for its risk management and disaster recovery processes to be able to meet its service level promise. As a result, the state of the local Waffle House after a storm or disaster is not a bad indicator of how quickly and well a community will recover. Even Chris Fugate, former head of FEMA, was quoted to say “If you get there and the Waffle House is closed? That's really bad…”
Events
Cool things. I’ll be at WAWEB3 this year on a panel about how the web3 ecosystem can create opportunities and contribute to more inclusive and diverse societies. It’s going to be a great couple of days to hear from a range of fabulous speakers in tech, web3, innovation, social impact, and adjacent spaces. From experience, it’s also a good space to meet the techy and tech-curious as well (and not just crypto bros).
Thanks for reading, and see you next time!
Stay curious.
— Michele
Footnotes
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Did you know that the Tasmanian tiger is a marsupial and its closest living relative, in terms of genetic distance, is the Fat Tailed Dunnart? Part of the research involves Dunnarts acting as surrogate mums for the Tasmanian tiger and fun fact, the average size of a Tasmanian tiger is 25kg and the Dunnart about 15gm. This sounds concerning, but don't worry, the science actually checks out. ↩
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I would also recommend you take a look at Aaron’s Wiki page to learn a bit about him and his contributions to the Internet and an Open world. ↩