SXSW panel explores the science of de-extinction
On day one of South by Southwest 2024, Ben Lamm – CEO and founder of Colossal Biosciences, aka the company that wants to– joined actor and filmmaker Seth Green to discuss progress in using biotech to both preserve endangered species and reintroduce extinct species into the environment.
The panel took the format of a fireside conversation: Green asking questions and Lamm providing scientific insight. “I know what you’re thinking: ‘This is the perfect person to be talking about significant scientific events,’” the formeractor joked. “What most people don't know is I’m actually incredibly curious and interested in all this kind of stuff.”-esque nightmares for many of us, but rest assured: Lamm says it’s still impossible to bring back dinosaurs.
Reintroducing keystone species to their native environments can have ripple effects, Lamm said. For example: the reintroduction of the gray wolf to Yellowstone in 1995. Lamm said reintroducing woolly mammoth to the Arctic tundra could lower ground temperatures, ensure permafrost, and sequester methane and carbon. Reintroducing apex predators, like the Tasmanian tiger to Australia, may result in healthier populations of prey species, like the Tasmanian devil.
The panel, originally titled “Fact-Checking Jurassic Park,” spent less time on the feasibility of reincarnating dinosaurs than Colossal’s more realistic goals. While not entirely scientifically accurate, Lamm said,did a great job of getting the public interested in DNA and genetic engineering. “It's a dystopian movie to entertain people,” Lamm said. “If it was just a bunch of geneticists that were successfully saving rhinos, I don't know if they would’ve had the same box office numbers.
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