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| Fascinating Book |
This true quest to revive the Woolly Mammoth is for a very, very good reason and it involves climate change. Scientists have learned that under the melting permafrost of the Arctic lies such a massive quantity of methane and carbon dioxide (two greenhouse gases) that if released could exacerbate the rate of global warming at a more alarming rate than even present day pollution. The Woolly Mammoth would actually help alleviate that melting, but you have to read the book.
Dr. George Church is the man behind the genetics research and his spinoff studies have done so much already for humanity that you likely don't know. I'll leave it there... It's a fascinating read and you can find out just how close we are to making this quest a reality. - Rob
JULY 24, 2017 CBS NEWS REPORT ABOUT NEW WOOLLY MAMMOTH FINDS WHILE DIGGING FOR A LOS ANGELES SUBWAY!
http://www.cbsnews.com/live/video/crews-find-fossils-while-digging-for-new-la-subway/
ABOUT THE BOOK:
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| Dr. George Church |
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| Woolly Mammoth |
“With his knack for turning narrative nonfiction into stories worthy of the best thriller fiction” (Omnivoracious), Ben Mezrich takes us on an exhilarating true adventure story from the icy terrain of Siberia to the cutting-edge genetic labs of Harvard University. A group of young scientists, under the guidance of Dr. George Church, the most brilliant geneticist of our time, works to make fantasy reality by sequencing the DNA of a frozen woolly mammoth harvested from above the Arctic circle, and splicing elements of that sequence into the DNA of a modern elephant. Will they be able to turn the hybrid cells into a functional embryo and bring the extinct creatures to life in our modern world?
Along with Church and his team of Harvard scientists, a world-famous conservationist and a genius Russian scientist plan to turn a tract of the Siberian tundra into Pleistocene Park, populating the permafrost with ancient herbivores as a hedge against an environmental ticking time bomb. More than a story of genetics, this is a thriller illuminating the race against global warming, the incredible power of modern technology, the brave fossil hunters who battle polar bears and extreme weather conditions, and the ethical quandary of cloning extinct animals. Can we right the wrongs of our ancestors who hunted the woolly mammoth to extinction—and at what cost?
