And like any 90s era kid, this meant he absolutely loved Steven SpielbergsJurassic Park.
I think all sci-fi has inspired me to be in tech.
Im not a biologist, Im not from this world.
Which gives us a lot of hope our first mammoth calves will also be this adorable.
Is it a mini-mammoth, some ask, or is this a new species, demand others?
Most common, though, is the refrain ofcan we buy one?
Were not letting them breed, Lamm says with a rueful smile.
When it comes to that element ofJurassic Park, Lamm appears less nostalgic.
Lamm says while considering the age-old question about dabbling in sciences which Crichton equated to Mary ShelleysFrankenstein.
But there is a page in the first part of the book where theres a DNA sequence.
Its exactly Georges work with only one letter off.
So statistically thats probably pretty hard, and its from published papers that George put out in the 70s.
Theres not enough DNA to ever rebuild something.
After all, the woolly mouse is specifically edited to match the ancient beast in its namesake.
We actually know what mammoth hair looks like because we pull it from the permafrost, Lamm notes.
Its actually quite beautiful.
So of all the mice that were born, all 38 of them were healthy.
Theyre still within the statistical range of what mice typically are.
Obviously their fur is much thicker, so they look bigger, but size-wise theyre about the same.
The findings will be amended into an updated version of the scientific paper Colossal has already published.
This again might get the blood up of some skeptics, including possibly Crichton if he were still alive.
(Its a detail Spielberg conspicuously omitted in his film adaptation.)
However, the possibility of bringing back the woolly mammoth is literally a whole different kind of animal.
Weve been very clear about this, that were trying to do whats called functionally de-extinction, right?
So its functionally de-extinction.
It is not possible to clone an extinct species.
You need a living cell and theres just no living cells from that long ago.
So I think its important that people understand the difference between whats possible and whats not.
All of these species evolve from each other, and were all hybrids of a hybrid of a hybrid.
Therefore Lamm wouldnt qualify a potential new woolly mammoth as a hybrid or subject it to any other qualifier.
If people want to call it mammoth 2.0, they can.
Or if people want to say 40 words to describe it, they can too.
They seek to use the mammoth to restore an ecosystem and aid conservationand even the fight against climate change.
It can actually even keep the ground temperatures colder in the summer months.
Thats not a bad trade on an ever-warming planet.
Wouldnt such a return unto itself constitute an invasive species?
Weve actually started putting out papers around this, and we even studied things like migratory patterns for caribou.
One might even say they are looking to prove that life finds a way.
