The Re-Origin of Species: A Second Chance for Extinct Animals

Description

What does a mammoth smell like? Do dinosaurs bob their heads as they walk, like today's birds? Do aurochs low like cows? You may soon find out. From the Siberian permafrost to balmy California, scientists across the globe are working to resurrect all kinds of extinct animals, from ones that just left us to those that have been gone for many thousands of years. Their tools in this hunt are both fossils and cutting-edge genetic technologies. Some of these scientists are driven by sheer curiosity; others view the lost species as a powerful weapon in the fight to preserve rapidly changing ecosystems. It seems certain that these animals will walk the earth again, but what world will that give us? And is any of this a good idea? Science journalist Torill Kornfeldt travelled the world to meet the men and women working to bring these animals back from the dead. Along the way, she has seen the mammoth that has been frozen for 20,000 years, and visited the places where these furry giants will live again.

Torill Kornfeldt is a Swedish science journalist with a background in biology. She has worked for Sweden's leading newspaper Dagens Nyheter and for Swedish public radio.

`Reading The Re-Origin of Species was a delightful adventure. Torill Kornfeldt took me by the hand and led me all around the world, and back through history, teaching me about how extinction works and how the restoration of all kinds of species, from the woolly mammoth to feathered dinosaurs, just may be a part of our future.' -Tim Urban, Wait But Why? `Any number of terms apply to Torill Kornfeldt's fascinating overview of this profoundly important subject: clear-eyed. Skeptical. Open-minded. But the word that sticks with me is one I haven't had cause to use in a very long time: hopeful. The Re-Origin of Species gives me hope.' -Peter Watts, author of Blindsight and Starfish `[T]his excellent book, written with a deceptively light touch (in Fiona Graham's translation) ... raises a number of deep questions and paradoxes about our relationship with nature.' -The Guardian `The author's careful synthesis of accomplishment versus aspiration is also spot-on-even world-class scientists will be dreamers, and there is much more research to be conducted before mammoths once again lumber across the tundra. Wondrous tales of futuristic science experiments that happen to be true.' -Kirkus Reviews `Pick up this book and you'll be glued to its pages, and soon convinced that bioengineering will continue to change the world in ways difficult to imagine.' -Good Reading, 4.5 Stars `[E]xpresses the full complexity of this topic in a lighthearted, masterful way, raising critical questions ... which guide the reader to develop informed opinions about how humankind can limit the ongoing destruction of nature.' -Adelaide Advertiser