De-Extinction Essay

“The notion of bringing vanished species back to life—some call it de-extinction—has hovered at the boundary between reality and science fiction for more than two decades, ever since novelist Michael Crichton unleashed the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park on the world. For most of that time, the science of de-extinction has lagged far behind the fantasy. Celia’s clone is the closest that anyone has gotten to true de-extinction.” (Zimmer, p.1) De-extinction is the idea of reviving members of extinct species such as mammoth, dodo and etc. and it is one of the debatable and interesting scientific issues in present. If before this we only see the idea of reviving occur only in a cartoon series like Naruto, now it’s about to be real because “On July 30,

And even if they were successfully being brought to life, how about the question of where do we put them? In which area in the world could we put them and how suitable it is for them to survive, for us to live and for other animals to adapt? Let us rewind and look back at the previous effort to de-extinction. “A huge effort went into restoring the Arabian oryx to the wild, for example. But after the animals were returned to a refuge in central Oman in 1982, almost all were wiped out by poachers. “We had the animals, and we put them back, and the world wasn’t ready,” says Pimm. “Having the species solves only a tiny, tiny part of the problem.”” (Zimmer, p.5) In addition, Glenn Albrecht says, “Without an environment to put re-created species back into, the whole exercise is futile and a gross waste of money,” (Zimmer, p.5) Of course some would say it is not called as an investment if we do not stand to lose. However, we are not just investing our money to bring back them to life, but we are also investing the life of other animals and ecosystem in the pursuit of de-extinction. “CRISPR pioneer George Church at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, has attracted attention for his ambitious plan to undo the damage by using CRISPR to transform endangered Indian elephants into woolly mammoths — or at least cold-resistant elephants. The goal, he says, would be to release them into a reserve in Siberia, where they would have space to roam.” (Sara Reardon, p.162) It is quite interesting to hear and discuss some big efforts to bring back the extinct species to life, but do the scientists could ensure that those species who are currently endangered will sustain their living and existence from the act of