Hi, All,
Thanks for stopping by. This will be my first post on my shiny new work blog. I read a lot, and I like to share cool new ideas. I thought this would be the perfect forum to post science, health, and tech news. I’ll be posting links, photos, and book recommendations.
This week has had some interesting news about cloning endangered and extinct species. Not like Jurassic Park (shoot!), but the idea could help replenish species that are endangered. As far as bringing back extinct species! I don’t quite know how I feel about that, but I think it is a science worth looking into.
- From Mother Nature Network: 14 Extinct Animals that Could be Resurrected
- From Scientific American: Will Cloning Ever Save Endangered Animals?
- From National Geographic: First Extinct Animal Clone Created
- And a good point by the American Anti-Vivisection Society: Cloning Endangered Species and Undermining Conservation
Two great people to follow on Twitter, if you’re interested in stuff like this are Brian Switek: @Laelaps and Carl Zimmer: @carlzimmer. They have been having an interesting discussion today. I think it’s definitely worth a follow. (The conversation and the people.)
My suggested book is about Extinction and Island Biogeography, which ties in perfectly with this idea, is The Song of the Dodo, by David Quammen. This book is more than worth your time. While reading about the ideas on cloning extinct species, I thought of this book. Song of the Dodo is incredibly well written and is full of great background information for tricky propositions like this. Mainly, as a counter point on the sustainability of the idea. We have managed to cut our world up into so many ‘islands’ there might not be any place for resurrected animals. We are having a hard enough time keeping the ones we still have alive.
Finally, I have a photo of a Thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger), one of the animals that has a chance of resurrection. Cute little thing, isn’t it?
Thanks for reading! Feel free to contact me for any of your writing or editing needs.