Can, and should, we bring species back from extinction? Advances in biotechnology may enable us to revive the passenger pigeon, the great auk, and even the wooly mammoth — and help restore biodiversity and genetic diversity in the process. But critics say that de-extinction efforts distract from important conservation priorities like combating habitat destruction and saving existing species. We discuss the issue.
Science Could Soon Bring Species Back to Life
Can, and should, we bring species back from extinction? Advances in biotechnology may enable us to revive the passenger pigeon, the great auk, and even the wooly mammoth -- and help restore biodiversity and genetic diversity in the process. But critics say that de-extinction efforts distract from important conservation priorities like combating habitat destruction and saving existing species. We discuss the issue.
(mammut/Wikimedia Commons)
Guests:
Stuart L. Pimm, Doris Duke professor of conservation ecology at Duke University
Ryan Phelan, executive director and co-founder of Revive and Restore, a project within The Long Now Foundation
Hank Greely, law professor and director of the Center for Law and the Biosciences at Stanford University