Could this synthetic egg bring back extinct birds? Researchers urge caution

Colossal Biosciences developed an artificial egg intended for de-extinction and endangered-species rescue. The device uses a 3D-printed lattice shell to protect a transparent silicon membrane. It has hatched roughly two dozen chicken and quail. The company plans to apply the technology to resurrect the extinct South Island giant moa, a tall New Zealand bird with very large eggs. Scientists note that the work may represent progress over earlier artificial-egg approaches that used materials like plastic films and cups, but they lack data because the details have not appeared in a peer-reviewed paper or preprint. Colossal has no current plan to publish, while aiming to commercialize and also make the technology available for conservation facilities.

"The device - a 3D-printed lattice shell that protects a transparent silicon membrane - has 'hatched' around two dozen chicken and quail. Colossal, based in Dallas, Texas, hopes to use the technology to resurrect the extinct South Island giant moa ( Dinornis robustus), a 3-metre-tall New Zealand bird that laid eggs the length of a rugby ball."

"Scientists say that the artificial egg - which is detailed in a 19 May press release and accompanying video, but not in a paper or preprint - could represent a genuine advance on work by other researchers. In previous studies, chicks were hatched from artificial eggs made of materials such as plastic films and cups. But researchers have many unanswered questions."

""It could be really important, it could be fantabulous," says Paul Mozdziak, a stem-cell biologist at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. "Without data, it's really impossible to judge what the true impact is.""

"The company has no current plans to describe the artificial egg in a paper, says Colossal's chief executive, Ben Lamm. The firm hopes to commercialize the technology but will make it available for conservation efforts, he adds. "There's an immediate group of people in zoos and conservation breeding facilities that could use this technology," says Ben Novak, who leads an effort to bring back the passenger pigeon ( Ectopistes migratorius) at the non-profit organization Revive & Restore in Sausalito, California."

Read at Nature