Frogs giving birth through the mouth, DNA retrieved from the frost, and why Jurassic Park just won’t happen: 5 takeaways from TEDxDeExtinction
What happens when you bring together an award-winning science journalist, a Harvard geneticist, the director of a “frozen zoo” of cryopreserved animal DNA, one of the scientists behind a mission to clone a wooly mammoth, and a 26-year-old dedicated to resurrecting a long-extinct breed of pigeon? TEDxDeExtinction, of course.
Last Friday, 25 speakers — biologists, geneticists, researchers, conservationists, and thinkers of all kinds — met at the National Geographic Society’s headquarters in Washington D.C. to explore the hows, whys, and what ifs of “de-extinction” — the mind-boggling science of reviving extinct species from the dead.
Below, 5 takeaways from this day of pondering whether a pet Tasmanian tiger is possible, or a herd of wooly mammoths in the 21st century is a good idea. And, of course, thoughts on Jurassic Park:
- “You can’t clone from stone.” Sorry, guys, no dinos: When it comes to de-extinction, dinosaurs are just not happening. Journalist Carl Zimmer (author of National Geographic’s April cover story on de-extinction) explained how DNA breaks down over time — has a half-life, so to speak — and as time has passed, dinosaur DNA has gone extinct, just like the dinos themselves. Or as Robert Lanza put it, “You can’t clone from stone.”
- Once upon a time, there were frogs who swallowed their eggs, incubated them in their stomach, and gave birth via their mouth. They’re extinct now, but they might be coming back — thanks to TEDxDeExtinction speaker Michael Archer and his team of researchers at University of New South Wales in Australia. At the event, Michael explained how his team used preserved DNA of the frog, Rheobatrachus silus, to create the first living embryo of an extinct species, implanted into the eggs of a different species of frog. An amazing feat for sure.
- The mammoth genome is almost at full completion, according to molecular evolutionary geneticist Hendrik Poinar, who works sequencing the genome via samples extracted from excavated, frozen remains. This mapping is key to an eventual attempt to “de-extinct” a mammoth, which would bring the animal to chilly areas like Siberia.
- There is such a title as molecular paleontologist, and Beth Shapiro has it. The adventurer scientists travels the Arctic collecting mammoth, horse, and extinct giant bear bones revealed by melting permafrost. She then extracts ancient DNA from these bones, studying it to figure out why some species die out when others don’t — especially after the last Ice Age. At TEDxDeExtinction, she explained how this extracted DNA could help scientists revive these ancient creatures from the past into the present (or, really — future).
- The very first “de-extinction” was of the bucardo, a type of Spanish goat. Soon before the last bucardo’s death, a team of scientists captured the animal and took tissue samples for preservation. After the goat’s death, and, ultimately, the species’ extinction — these samples were used by a team of scientists, including TEDxDeExtinction speaker Alberto Fernández-Arias to “de-extinct” the goat, using a domestic (and alive) goat as a surrogate. In 2003, a baby bucardo was born, but only lived for ten minutes.
For more information on TEDxDeExtinction, visit their website, and for more on “de-extinction” science, check out TEDxDeExtinction speaker Carl Zimmer’s feature story in National Geographic, “Bringing Them Back to Life.”
(Photos: top, ANT Photo Library/Science Source; Bottom left, passenger pigeon, Bradley’s Animal Place; Bottom right, El retorno del bucardo)
Stewart Brand talks about reviving the passenger pigeon at TED2013
Bringing back extinct species — this Friday, TEDxDeExtinction discusses how we’ll do it and whether we should
An endangered species is like a very sick person: It needs help, desperately. An extinct species is like a dead person: beyond help, beyond hope
Or at least it has been, until now. For the first time, our own species—the one that has done so much to condemn those other 795 to oblivion—may be poised to bring at least some of them back.
—National Geographic, “Species Revival: Should We Bring Back Extinct Animals?”
This process, the process of bringing an extinct species back from once-certain oblivion, is called de-extinction. As reported on the TED Blog, “The first de-extinction happened on the bucardo, a type of wild mountain goat. The last bucardo died out in 2000, but its ear was preserved, and in 2009 DNA from the ear was planted in a mother goat. The engineered bucardo died after 10 minutes due to a defect in its lungs.”
But is there hope for de-exintction to continue? With other animals? New Techniques? Could we someday see the wooly mammoth in the flesh? At TED2013, scientist Stewart Brand gave a introduction to the possibilities, and now he wants us to talk about it.
This month, along with his foundation Revive & Restore, with the support of TED and TEDster Ryan Phelan, and in partnership with National Geographic Society, Brand is convening a day-long conference — called TEDxDeExtinction — to showcase the prospects of bringing extinct species back to life, along with a discussion of the ethical issues involved.
On Friday, March 15, 2013, TEDxDeExtinction will bring 25 renowned experts together at National Geographic headquarters to contribute ideas to these four sessions:
- WHO: Who among extinct species should be revived first?
- HOW: How can extinct species be revived?
- WHY AND WHY NOT: Should we bring back extinct species?
- WILD AGAIN: Could resurrected species ever be wild again?
Speakers include:
- George Church, professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and director of PersonalGenomes.org, the world’s only open-access information source for the human genome .
- President of the American Ornithologists’ Union Susan Haig, whose specialization is working with species facing the brink of extinction.
- Director of Genetics at the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation and Research Oliver Ryder, who oversees research efforts in cell culture and cryobanking, cytogenetics, population genetics, conservation breeding, evolution and systematics, and applications of genomics technologies to conservation efforts for managed and wild populations of threatened and endangered species.
- New York Times, National Geographic, and winner of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Journalism Award journalist Carl Zimmer.
This day-long event will be webcast live on March 15 on the TEDx Livestream: http://new.livestream.com/tedx/DeExtinction and at http://nationalgeographic.com/deextinction.
To attend in person, event tickets can be purchased at the TEDxDeExtinction website.
