Why Bringing Back a Wooly Mammoth Is No Longer Science Fiction. Dr. George Church is a real life Dr. Frankenstein. The inventor of CRISPR and one of the minds behind the Human Genome Project is no longer content just reading and editing DNAnow he wants to make new life. In Ben Mezrichs latest book, Wooly The True Story of the Quest to Revive One of Historys Most Iconic Extinct Creatures, Church and his Harvard lab try to do the impossible, and clone an extinct Woolly mammoth back into existence. Mezrich, author of the books that would become the feature films 2. The Social Network, seems to have graduated from college to a bioengineering Ph. D with his latest work, which is chock full of scientific explanation detailing every aspect of the Church labs efforts to rewrite the DNA of an elephant to look like a wooly mammoth. But Mezrich is even more interested in telling the stories of the people trying to make the mammoth a reality, dramatizing the lives of Church, his wife, Harvard Professor Dr. Ting Wu, their fellow scientists, researchers working for a competing cloning lab in Korea, and the conservationists at the Siberian preserve where the mammoths will finally reside. While at times his predictions feel too good to be true, Mezrichs prose rarely fails to engage. Gizmodo sat down with Mezrich to talk about a few of the themes present in his book, as well as the future of de extinction and scientific breakthroughs in general. Below is a lightly edited and condensed version of the interview. Gizmodo What brought you to extinct species revival in particular Mezrich Ive been interested in mammoths since I was a kid, basically, and Ive always been a fan of Michael Crichton and Jurassic Park, so its always been on my mind to tell a story like that. Then a couple years ago, I started hearing about Dr. George Church and the Mammoth Revival project, and I decided I just needed to tell this story. So I basically reached out to him blindly. He let me embed myself in his lab, so I spent a while just living there seeing what was going on, and just getting really into it. Gizmodo An early chapter of the book opens four years in the future, when humans have succeeded in bringing mammoths back to life. What makes you think the project will succeed so soonPutlocker9 Watch Putlocker9 Movies Online watch putlockeres thousands of movies and tv shows for free and without sign up, watch putlocker9 free movies. Stay informed on the latest DVDs to come out planned DVD release dates. Get ratings, watch trailers read our exclusive content from our DVD insiders. Xmovies8. Watch Free Movies Online Watch The Fate of the Furious full movie on xmovies8, putlocker, movietube, watch32, hulu, The plot is unknown at this time. Mezrich Even at this moment, right now, there are three prehistoric woolly mammoth genomes alive, living in elephant cells, so were on the verge of it. I was talking to George the previous night. Even though he doesnt put a date on it, I put the four year date, but he sees that as totally possible. The slowest part of the process right now is the gestation period of an elephant. Whether well have a woolly mammoth in three years or just be very close in three years, I dont know, but a lot depends on the money and on the elephant. The initiative is how they work on it, but it is feasible. Gizmodo Lets talk about the money. Thats a huge motivating factor behind the project, but it seems like the wealthy are the ones funding scientific efforts a lot of the time Editors Note The Church Labs Genome Sequencing project is funded mainly by private computing and biotechnology companies. Watch Beetlejuice Online Hulu' title='Watch Beetlejuice Online Hulu' />Is this a good thing How do you feel about science funded on the whims of oligarchsMezrich Well its interesting, you look at this marriage between incredibly wealthy people and science, and in some ways its a very good thing. Watch Bad Guys Hindi Full Movie. You know, in some ways it pushes science forward. Youre not gonna see and I wish you would Donald Trump pouring money into the woolly mammoth revival project, youre not seeing the government doing these things. Scientists do often have to turn to outside sources, and if someone like Peter Thiel wants to live forever, he needs to fund the things in George Churchs lab. So whatever his personal goal, its good for everybody. I look at it as a positive thing, I think big money has always influenced outside the box science, look at what Elon Musk does or whats going on at Amazon, Facebook or Google. Its very very wealthy people throwing money at crazy ideas, and hopefully we all benefit from it. Peter Thiel put in 1. Gizmodo This book and The Accidental Billionaires both had the protagonists receive additional funding from Peter Thiel. Greek Season 3 Episode 13 Part 5. How do you feel about his involvement in particular in such immediately relevant work Mezrich Yeah, Ive written about him twice. Editors Note Mezrich also covered Peter Thiel in his book Accidental Billionaires In this case the way George tells the story, he basically ran into Peter Thiel, and told him about a couple of projects. Thiel said tell me your craziest projects, and he listed a couple of them, and Thiel said, the woolly mammoth, thats the one I want to do. Gizmodo Speaking of other projects, is Church working on anything half as crazy as a mammoth Mezrich Yeah, absolutely, Church and his lab are doing the anti malaria mosquitos, working with the Gates foundation, theyre building domes over villages in Africa and releasing mosquitoes that cant carry malaria, to test them out. Also, his student Ken Esfeld at MIT is working on transgenic mice to beat lyme disease. The goal is to release 1. Lyme disease onto the island of Nantucket, which is kind of a wild story. In his lab, theyre also working on the pigs with human compatible livers. Theyve a couple of pig embryos with livers that can be used in humans. Youre looking at the future of transplantation, which is incredible. Theyre working on projects to extend lifespans but the mammoth project and the ones with the transgenic species are the craziest. Gizmodo Do you think meddling with ecosystems and reviving lost species could have negative effects on living ones Mezrich You have to be very ethical and responsible because youre working with technology that is very powerful. The same technology that allows you to create a woolly mammoth or an extinct species allows you to eliminate a species if you want. You could eliminate mosquitos Editors Note Scientists are discussing the possibility of doing this with a controversial and speculative technology called gene drive, but that brings up enormous issues in ecology. I think bringing back an extinct species like the mammoth is generally a good thing, I think that the people who dont want Church to do that are usually thinking what does it mean for the Asian elephant population, which is endangered. But its not a zero sum gamewere not giving up on these endangered species. Years a Slave Tries to Keep Its Lead. OSCAR PREDICTIONSOCTOBER 1. BEST PICTUREBlade Runner 2. Warner Bros. 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