Search Results for: de-extinction

Calling out colossal baloney on supposed dire wolf de-extinction

dire wolf de-extinction

Just the phrase “dire wolf de-extinction” evokes many things including Game of Thrones. It seems very cool. However, the new claim by biotech Colossal Biosciences that they brought back these unique canines (they were real but are now extinct) seems to me about as real as those giant mythical canines on the TV show. Yet […]

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Weekly reads: Beth Shapiro & de-extinction, mice with two dads, stem cell patches

Beth Shapiro, De-extinction

Biologist and ancient DNA expert Beth Shapiro is becoming more well known for doing de-extinction research. Yet Shapiro used to be a de-extinction skeptic. Ten years ago she wrote “How to Clone a Mammoth.” In the book she mentioned serious challenges related to de-extinction. Now she is the CSO for a firm trying to make

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Weekly reads: anti-aging tricks & treats, stealthy stem cells, Mammoth de-extinction milestone

Pura Munoz-Canoves

Anti-aging might already be the big regenerative medicine story of 2024 and it’s only early March. Anti-aging hype going to the dogs? One of my 20 stem cell and regenerative medicine predictions for 2024 was that longevity would continue to make big news including in some not-so-great ways. In just over two months there has

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Weekly reads: Mammoth De-extinction update, space babies, Alzheimer’s, MSCs don’t help knees

George Church De Extinction Mammoth

What’s more important than Woolly Mammoth de-extinction research in the stem cell arena? Only maybe a 10,000 other things. Still, the mammoth de-extinction efforts  capture people’s attention much more than the average research story. Mammoth De-extinction update Is de-extinction only a pipette dream? This startup has a big, expensive plan to find out, Popular Science.

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Weekly reads: De-extinction pros & cons with Dodo 2.0, CTCF, retraction

Dodo bird de-extinction, de-extinction

I don’t think de-extinction of animals just for the heck of it like woolly mammoths is a good idea, but what about de-extincting animals like the Dodo? Where humans caused them to disappear? If that’s even possible, is it a good idea? Dodo de-extinction A company is giving it a try. I can see the

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Why I oppose de-extinction of woolly mammoths

mammoth-219x300

De-extinction is big right now and some of the extinct target creatures are big too like the woolly mammoth. “Let’s bring back these extinct creatures”, say proponents. Wouldn’t it be cool? I have to admit seeing a woolly mammoth, mastodon, or saber tooth tiger would be cool, but such efforts would not be without consequences

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Weekly reads: stem cell marathon, Ray Therapeutics, stem cells making you fat?

marathon, stem cell

Stem cells can be serious business, but sometimes stories come along that are just fun like a lady running a marathon dressed as a stem cell. How cool is this: “Louise Cato from Somerset is doing the run to raise money for the charity Anthony Nolan, after her dad had a bone marrow transplant over

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Weekly reads: robot scientist, stem cell sperm make a baby, assembloids & sense

How about a robot grant writing scientist?

What’s life as an academic scientist really like now? It’s gotten worse in the U.S. recently. There’s more stress about funding including on levels that we can’t control. I’m writing too many grant proposals these days. I’m wondering how much researchers are now using AI for grant writing, which I have not done. Does AI

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