Just like in ‘Jurassic Park’, a US company is planning to bring extinct animals back to life.
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Similar to the movie ‘Jurassic Park’, the US-based company Colossal Biosciences, headquartered in Texas, plans to bring back to life a series of animals that roamed the Earth during the Ice Age.
Founded by geneticist George Church and technology entrepreneur Ben Lamm, the company intends to use stem cell technology and genome editing in its “de-extinction” process, which allows for cutting and pasting small sections of DNA to remove or edit genes and thereby more accurately recreate the animal they are trying to bring back to life.
In an interview with SkyNews, Ben Lamm described the technique as a “reverse Jurassic Park”: “In the movie, they fill the gaps in the dinosaur’s DNA with frog DNA. We are using artificial intelligence and other tools to identify the core genes that make a mammoth and then we transform them into elephant genomes.”
Colossal has already announced plans to resurrect the Tasmanian tiger, as well as dodos and mammoths, and Lamm believes these creatures could be seen within a decade. Scientists involved in the project believe that the research will not only bring back extinct animals but also benefit species conservation and restore threatened ecosystems.
While the idea of bringing back some long-extinct animals may seem fantastical, many have raised ethical concerns about the plan, accusing the company of “playing God”. However, Lamm argues otherwise; for him, the priority is to preserve planet Earth.
“Regardless of philosophical or religious views, I think we can all agree that we have a duty to protect this planet. This is what we have, this is our station in this universe right now, so we have a duty to protect it and everything within it.”
This content was created with the assistance of AI.
