Twenty years later and the bioengineering company Colossal Biosciences has set its sights on resurrecting the legendary woolly mammoth. But before that, they've delivered the most adorable laboratory creation in history or prehistory: the woolly mouse.
The article from MSN discusses the ambitious project by Colossal Biosciences to resurrect the woolly mammoth, extinct for about 4,000 years, through a process known as de-extinction. The company, co-founded by tech entrepreneur Ben Lamm and Harvard geneticist George Church, aims to recreate the mammoth by editing the genes of its closest living relative, the Asian elephant, to produce a hybrid with mammoth-like traits. This endeavor not only seeks to bring back the mammoth but also to restore the ecological balance in the Arctic, where mammoths once played a crucial role in maintaining the tundra ecosystem. The project involves significant genetic engineering, with the first step being the creation of a "woolly mouse" - a mouse with mammoth genes to test the functionality of these genes in a living organism. The ultimate goal is to have a mammoth-like creature roaming the Arctic by 2027, although the project faces numerous scientific, ethical, and environmental challenges.
Science & Technology
Tue, March 4, 2025
