Is “de-extinction” possible?
Bringing back species that died out long ago is not impossible. What would happen if we tried it?
Will we one day walk with dinosaurs or mammoths? The idea isn't completely beyond the realms of possibility.
However, as this video from The Verge points out, it’s not quite how the Jurassic Park films portray it. In the original story, scientists extracted DNA from a fossil, stitched the broken pieces together and used it to fertilise the egg of a modern creature. It would be feasible, except for the fact that dinosaur DNA is so old, it will have disintegrated beyond repair.
There are better hopes for the mammoth. Having died out just 10,000 years ago, it left enough genetic material for us to have a good guess at the way its DNA slots together. What’s more, a close relative still roams the Earth: the elephant. Scientists might just take the genome of a modern elephant and tweak it so it resembles its woollier cousin.
But just because it’s possible, doesn’t mean it’s likely anytime soon. Watch the video to understand the enormous challenges this “de-extinction” would bring.
This video was first published on The Verge.
