"Imagine the chilling howl of a dire wolf - a sound swallowed by time over ten thousand years ago - echoing through a modern forest. Sounds like fantasy - maybe something straight out of Game of Thrones? But this isn't fantasy anymore. Welcome to the world of de-extinction, the cutting edge (or perhaps the unnerving edge?) of science resurrecting vanished species using powerful gene-editing tools."
"How does this whole species resurrection thing actually work on a technical level? Well, the key is CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) - a gene-editing technology that's been making waves. Think of it as an incredibly precise biological 'find and replace' tool that's based on a natural defense system found in bacteria that allows scientists to target specific DNA sequences with remarkable accuracy."
De-extinction aims to recreate vanished species by editing the genomes of closely related living organisms using CRISPR. Well-preserved fossil DNA can provide blueprints to identify genes responsible for extinct species' traits. Scientists propose editing gray wolf DNA to reintroduce dire wolf characteristics through targeted sequence changes. CRISPR functions as a precise tool to cut, remove, or insert DNA segments and enable targeted trait reconstruction. Technical feasibility brings de-extinction from speculation toward practical goals while generating ethical questions about human intervention, ecological consequences, conservation priorities, and the responsibility of reversing extinction.
Read at Philosophynow
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