Book-blogging: De-Extinction Edition
Jul. 28th, 2017 04:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brigdh(Three guesses what I've been preparing to teach a class on)
So, yes, there is indeed an effort on to bring the Woolly Mammoth back from extinction, either through cloning (led by teams from Japan and South Korea) or through editing the genomes of modern-day Asian Elephants (led by a team from Harvard, with celeb-scientist George Church at the helm). Working on another aspect of the project, Sergey Zimov, assisted by his son Nikita, have already established a nature reserve in remote northeastern Siberia to provide a habitat for the potential mammoths – and of course they have named it Pleistocene Park, because there is no way to talk about this topic without a million references to Jurassic Park. The Zimovs have also provided the impetus for this project by arguing that mammoths would churn the soil and trample the snow as they grazed, thus exposing the permafrost to the freezing temperatures of the air in a Siberian winter, and thereby slowing down global warming.
Woolly: The True Story of the Quest to Revive One of History’s Most Iconic Extinct Creatures by Ben Mezrich. Mezrich's book gives the bare basics of the science and ethics of de-extinction, but he is way, way more interested in the personalities surrounding the technology. Did you need two chapters on George Church's troubled childhood relationship with a stepbrother? Now you have them! How about one where his mom takes him to the 1964 World's Fair and he's inspired to become a scientist? There's that too! In addition to chapters on Nikita Zimov's romantic relationship with his wife, and what Stewart Brand's (one of the founders of Revive & Restore, a non-profit funding de-extinction research) vacation house looks like, and so on. Even when Mezrich does deign to write about actual science, he's focused on the drama and setbacks (a car crash while transporting elk cross-country!) and not so much on explaining what's happening (we never do learn how those elk adapt once they reach their destination).
I was particularly annoyed by two speculative chapters set "Four years from today..." when Mezrich just goes off into flights of fancy, describing what it might be like to have woolly mammoths in what is supposedly a non-fiction book. These chapters are not set apart from the rest of the text, and so I spent several pages really confused by what was happening and how it could be possible. (And by the way, four years is a crazy timetable that is in no way realistic for what he describes.) There's also at least one chapter that I'm pretty sure was supposed to be set today (or, well, in 2016 or whenever Mezrich did his research), but that I've been able to find no confirmation of anywhere outside this book itself. So was it just more speculation? Or an important advance that has been covered by no newspaper anywhere? I don't know, and this is why I'm annoyed.
This book only came out this month (July 2017), and so while I was grateful for the up-to-date developments it included, it could have been much better written.
How to Clone a Mammoth: The Science of De-extinction by Beth Shapiro. (2015) Shapiro is herself a scientist, one who specializes in recovering and reading Ancient DNA, and it really shows in this book. She understands the science of cloning, sequencing genomes, editing DNA, epigenetic influence on gene expression, and more, and explains it all in a clear and comprehensible way.
She's also the most cynical by far of any of the de-extinction authors I've read; she's skeptical not just of if it's really possible to bring back woolly mammoths, but also if it's a good idea in the first place. She goes deep into many of the arguments against de-extinction and admits that she agrees with many of them. She takes the stance that de-extinction doesn't really "count" unless we can progress all the way to releasing a viable population of the species into the wild, and therefore attention deserves to go to species that will most have a beneficial effect of their ecosystems.
Despite this somewhat negative view, Shapiro is actually involved in a de-extinction project herself (Revive & Restore's effort to de-extinct the passenger pigeon), and I feel like the practicality this gives her infuses the whole book. She's spent years grappling with the questions of how to do this and why, and there's a solidness, a down-to-earthness, to her answers that other authors just don't have. Highly recommended if you really want to know the ins and outs of the science behind de-extinction.
Bring Back the King: The New Science of De-Extinction by Helen Pilcher. (2016) The easiest read of the recent de-extinction books, and probably the one I'd recommend for someone with only a casual interest in the topic. Each chapter covers a specific de-extinction project, from the likely to the implausible: dinosaurs, woolly mammoths, passenger pigeons, dodos, tasmanian tigers, Neanderthals, and, of course, Elvis. This organization means that she doesn't get particularly deep into any one project, but on the other hand, breadth can be equally impressive. Pilcher doesn't skimp on explaining the science and ethical quandaries of de-extinction, but the overall tone of the book is definitely "OMG, listen to this neat fact I just found!" Which isn't a criticism; I have very much enjoyed my share of neat fact collections. (Such as: the origin of the word "Dodo" is possibly from the Dutch for "Fat-Ass". There, isn't your life improved by knowing that?)
I particularly enjoyed how Pilcher emphasizes that the technology used for de-extinction isn't limited to incredible feats of seeing Ice Age megafauna roam the earth once more. Current conservation projects, such as those for black-footed ferrets and the Northern white rhino (two species that are technically not yet extinct, but it's probably only a matter of time) could and are using the same methods to protect their dwindling populations. It's a way of bringing all the speculation and scientific advances back down to earth and showing their real, current effects.
So, yes, there is indeed an effort on to bring the Woolly Mammoth back from extinction, either through cloning (led by teams from Japan and South Korea) or through editing the genomes of modern-day Asian Elephants (led by a team from Harvard, with celeb-scientist George Church at the helm). Working on another aspect of the project, Sergey Zimov, assisted by his son Nikita, have already established a nature reserve in remote northeastern Siberia to provide a habitat for the potential mammoths – and of course they have named it Pleistocene Park, because there is no way to talk about this topic without a million references to Jurassic Park. The Zimovs have also provided the impetus for this project by arguing that mammoths would churn the soil and trample the snow as they grazed, thus exposing the permafrost to the freezing temperatures of the air in a Siberian winter, and thereby slowing down global warming.
Woolly: The True Story of the Quest to Revive One of History’s Most Iconic Extinct Creatures by Ben Mezrich. Mezrich's book gives the bare basics of the science and ethics of de-extinction, but he is way, way more interested in the personalities surrounding the technology. Did you need two chapters on George Church's troubled childhood relationship with a stepbrother? Now you have them! How about one where his mom takes him to the 1964 World's Fair and he's inspired to become a scientist? There's that too! In addition to chapters on Nikita Zimov's romantic relationship with his wife, and what Stewart Brand's (one of the founders of Revive & Restore, a non-profit funding de-extinction research) vacation house looks like, and so on. Even when Mezrich does deign to write about actual science, he's focused on the drama and setbacks (a car crash while transporting elk cross-country!) and not so much on explaining what's happening (we never do learn how those elk adapt once they reach their destination).
I was particularly annoyed by two speculative chapters set "Four years from today..." when Mezrich just goes off into flights of fancy, describing what it might be like to have woolly mammoths in what is supposedly a non-fiction book. These chapters are not set apart from the rest of the text, and so I spent several pages really confused by what was happening and how it could be possible. (And by the way, four years is a crazy timetable that is in no way realistic for what he describes.) There's also at least one chapter that I'm pretty sure was supposed to be set today (or, well, in 2016 or whenever Mezrich did his research), but that I've been able to find no confirmation of anywhere outside this book itself. So was it just more speculation? Or an important advance that has been covered by no newspaper anywhere? I don't know, and this is why I'm annoyed.
This book only came out this month (July 2017), and so while I was grateful for the up-to-date developments it included, it could have been much better written.
How to Clone a Mammoth: The Science of De-extinction by Beth Shapiro. (2015) Shapiro is herself a scientist, one who specializes in recovering and reading Ancient DNA, and it really shows in this book. She understands the science of cloning, sequencing genomes, editing DNA, epigenetic influence on gene expression, and more, and explains it all in a clear and comprehensible way.
She's also the most cynical by far of any of the de-extinction authors I've read; she's skeptical not just of if it's really possible to bring back woolly mammoths, but also if it's a good idea in the first place. She goes deep into many of the arguments against de-extinction and admits that she agrees with many of them. She takes the stance that de-extinction doesn't really "count" unless we can progress all the way to releasing a viable population of the species into the wild, and therefore attention deserves to go to species that will most have a beneficial effect of their ecosystems.
Despite this somewhat negative view, Shapiro is actually involved in a de-extinction project herself (Revive & Restore's effort to de-extinct the passenger pigeon), and I feel like the practicality this gives her infuses the whole book. She's spent years grappling with the questions of how to do this and why, and there's a solidness, a down-to-earthness, to her answers that other authors just don't have. Highly recommended if you really want to know the ins and outs of the science behind de-extinction.
Bring Back the King: The New Science of De-Extinction by Helen Pilcher. (2016) The easiest read of the recent de-extinction books, and probably the one I'd recommend for someone with only a casual interest in the topic. Each chapter covers a specific de-extinction project, from the likely to the implausible: dinosaurs, woolly mammoths, passenger pigeons, dodos, tasmanian tigers, Neanderthals, and, of course, Elvis. This organization means that she doesn't get particularly deep into any one project, but on the other hand, breadth can be equally impressive. Pilcher doesn't skimp on explaining the science and ethical quandaries of de-extinction, but the overall tone of the book is definitely "OMG, listen to this neat fact I just found!" Which isn't a criticism; I have very much enjoyed my share of neat fact collections. (Such as: the origin of the word "Dodo" is possibly from the Dutch for "Fat-Ass". There, isn't your life improved by knowing that?)
I particularly enjoyed how Pilcher emphasizes that the technology used for de-extinction isn't limited to incredible feats of seeing Ice Age megafauna roam the earth once more. Current conservation projects, such as those for black-footed ferrets and the Northern white rhino (two species that are technically not yet extinct, but it's probably only a matter of time) could and are using the same methods to protect their dwindling populations. It's a way of bringing all the speculation and scientific advances back down to earth and showing their real, current effects.
no subject
Date: 2017-07-28 10:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-07-29 01:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-07-29 10:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-07-28 10:14 pm (UTC)...Though if the mammoths escape and trample everyone, don't say I didn't warn you.
no subject
Date: 2017-07-29 01:09 am (UTC)Ha, yes, they do worry about that! Or more likely a billion-strong flock of passenger pigeons covering your newly washed car in a mountain of poop, but you know. All sorts of negative potential consequences.
no subject
Date: 2017-07-29 03:49 am (UTC)I am very invested in the continuing existence of black-footed ferrets. I am invested in the continuing existence of a lot of other species, too, for the simple reason that they do not deserve to be wiped out by human selfishness and short-sightedness, but with black-footed ferrets it's personal.
no subject
Date: 2017-07-30 09:23 pm (UTC)