 Remember what they did with the dinosaur DNA in Jurassic Park? They like found it in a tree, sewed it all up, rebooted the dinosaurs from scratch, and then they had Nylonded dinosaurs that killed everybody. It turns out the basic theory behind that methodology is actually totally sound. It's just a question of whether we can make it work. They didn't really mention this in the movie, but the problem with dinosaurs is that their DNA is really old. You'd never be able to find a good sample. Mammoths on the other hand, people are a little more optimistic about. We've had mammoth fossils for a while, and we've actually got mammoth hair, mammoth protein, we know lots about them. But the DNA samples are pretty broken up from all those years inside of that layer of permafrost. If you look hard enough though, you can get a sense of how they all fit together. It's also pretty convenient that a mammoth's DNA is 99% the same as an African elephant. So we actually have a pretty good roadmap of how to build this thing. We can start with the elephant DNA, and we'll all just plug in the mammoth DNA wherever it looks different. So we've got the DNA, we put the DNA in an elephant egg, put the egg in an elephant, add some sperm, and then there's your mammoth. This sounds crazy, but people get really excited about this idea. Picture somebody who's studied mammoths for their whole life. Like what do they eat, how do they move, how do they smell? Now you're actually standing next to a mammoth. It's got the tusks, the hair, it smells pretty terrible actually, it's real. We brought it back, we're the coolest dudes in the universe. But then your scientist buddy says, wait, that's not actually a mammoth. That, my friend, is a genetically engineered elephant. You just messed with its DNA so it would look like a mammoth. The other problem is that she's lived her whole life in a lab or a zoo, so she can't actually teach you how mammoths behave in the wild. If you want to do an actual de-extinction, yes that's a word, you've got to go for the whole package. You need a real mammoth habitat with a bunch of actual mammoths that are all like having a mammoth party. And then there's genetic diversity so that they can actually breed with each other and create a real mammoth community. It's hard enough to arrange all that for endangered species that are still around today. We just can't do all that for mammoths. But maybe we could do it for other animals that are much easier to take care of. There's a group right now trying to bring back passenger pigeons, building aviaries in state forests where they could live. They want to train them with real homing pigeons and gradually reintroduce them back into the wild. It's kind of a long shot, but with enough time and enough science, they actually have a chance of making it happen. If they do, it'll be the first time in human history that we brought a whole species back from the dead. Then we can focus on the mammoths.
 Remember what they did with the dinosaur DNA in Jurassic Park?
 They like found it in a tree, sewed it all up, rebooted the dinosaurs from scratch, and
 then they had Nylonded dinosaurs that killed everybody.
 It turns out the basic theory behind that methodology is actually totally sound.
 It's just a question of whether we can make it work.
 They didn't really mention this in the movie, but the problem with dinosaurs is that their
 DNA is really old.
 You'd never be able to find a good sample.
 Mammoths on the other hand, people are a little more optimistic about.
 We've had mammoth fossils for a while, and we've actually got mammoth hair, mammoth protein,
 we know lots about them.
 But the DNA samples are pretty broken up from all those years inside of that layer of permafrost.
 If you look hard enough though, you can get a sense of how they all fit together.
 It's also pretty convenient that a mammoth's DNA is 99% the same as an African elephant.
 So we actually have a pretty good roadmap of how to build this thing.
 We can start with the elephant DNA, and we'll all just plug in the mammoth DNA wherever
 it looks different.
 So we've got the DNA, we put the DNA in an elephant egg, put the egg in an elephant, add
 some sperm, and then there's your mammoth.
 This sounds crazy, but people get really excited about this idea.
 Picture somebody who's studied mammoths for their whole life.
 Like what do they eat, how do they move, how do they smell?
 Now you're actually standing next to a mammoth.
 It's got the tusks, the hair, it smells pretty terrible actually, it's real.
 We brought it back, we're the coolest dudes in the universe.
 But then your scientist buddy says, wait, that's not actually a mammoth.
 That, my friend, is a genetically engineered elephant.
 You just messed with its DNA so it would look like a mammoth.
 The other problem is that she's lived her whole life in a lab or a zoo, so she can't
 actually teach you how mammoths behave in the wild.
 If you want to do an actual de-extinction, yes that's a word, you've got to go for the
 whole package.
 You need a real mammoth habitat with a bunch of actual mammoths that are all like having
 a mammoth party.
 And then there's genetic diversity so that they can actually breed with each other and
 create a real mammoth community.
 It's hard enough to arrange all that for endangered species that are still around today.
 We just can't do all that for mammoths.
 But maybe we could do it for other animals that are much easier to take care of.
 There's a group right now trying to bring back passenger pigeons, building aviaries in
 state forests where they could live.
 They want to train them with real homing pigeons and gradually reintroduce them back into the
 wild.
 It's kind of a long shot, but with enough time and enough science, they actually have
 a chance of making it happen.
 If they do, it'll be the first time in human history that we brought a whole species back
 from the dead.
 Then we can focus on the mammoths.