Science & Technology

PayPal founder funds mammoth resurrection

By T.K. Randall
July 3, 2017

Image: AI-generated (Bing AI / Dall-E 3) Harvard University's Professor George Church and his team have been working to bring back the long-extinct species by first producing a "mammophant" - a cross between a modern elephant and a mammoth that will possess some of the physical traits of both species.

To achieve this, the researchers aim to splice in the genes associated with certain mammoth traits such as long shaggy hair, subcutaneous fat and blood adapted to cold weather climates.

Now according to a new book by Ben Mezrich entitled Woolly: The True Story of the Quest to Revive one of History's Most Iconic Extinct Creatures, their efforts are being helped along by PayPal founder Pete Thiel who contributed $100,000 to the project back in 2015.

As things stand, it has been predicted that a live mammoth could be created within the next ten years.Not everyone however is enthusiastic about the prospect of bringing the species back from the dead.

"The proposed 'de-extinction' of mammoths raises a massive ethical issue - the mammoth was not simply a set of genes, it was a social animal, as is the modern Asian elephant," said Matthew Cobb, professor of zoology at the University of Manchester.

"What will happen when the elephant-mammoth hybrid is born ?"

"How will it be greeted by elephants ?"

Source: Tech Times

Tags: Mammoth