WEBVTT - Cloning Mammoths, Cultivating Organs + Giant Beavers 0:00:01.360 --> 0:00:04.720 Really now, really. 0:00:06.760 --> 0:00:10.080 Really now, really. 0:00:09.800 --> 0:00:12.719 Hello and welcome to Really Know Really with Peter Tilden 0:00:12.800 --> 0:00:17.000 and Jason Alexander on today's episode, Are we really about 0:00:17.000 --> 0:00:20.479 to bring back a long extinct species? Will we soon 0:00:20.560 --> 0:00:24.920 be doing organ transplants with synthetic organs? What's the deal 0:00:25.000 --> 0:00:29.440 with cryogenic freezing? What are the ethical challenges of genetic editing? 0:00:29.720 --> 0:00:32.520 And will woolly mammoth meatballs soon be on the menu? 0:00:32.720 --> 0:00:34.839 And do they pair better with a twenty thousand year 0:00:34.840 --> 0:00:39.320 old merlou or Cabernet All on Really No Really, America's 0:00:39.479 --> 0:00:43.680 number one podcast, No Real occasionally listens to our podcast, 0:00:44.159 --> 0:00:47.640 so we've been told can't really be verified? And now 0:00:47.800 --> 0:00:50.120 here's Jason and Peter really. 0:00:51.800 --> 0:00:56.160 No Really, Well, yes, this is either we're gonna talk 0:00:56.200 --> 0:01:00.560 today about something that's either the greatest thing ever or 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:01.360 a nightmare. 0:01:02.080 --> 0:01:04.440 I don't understand it. I don't understand the why of it. 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:05.039 Correct. 0:01:05.160 --> 0:01:07.399 That's the big question is are correct the why? And 0:01:07.440 --> 0:01:09.240 we'll hopefully we'll find that out. And what are we 0:01:09.280 --> 0:01:09.880 talking about? 0:01:10.040 --> 0:01:13.360 Well, here's what we discovered that there is. 0:01:15.200 --> 0:01:18.640 A company, There are companies, but certainly a company that 0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:23.679 has been tasked with bringing back to bring back to 0:01:24.000 --> 0:01:30.479 de extinctualize, among other things, the wooly mammoth and the 0:01:30.520 --> 0:01:34.160 Dodo bird. We're going to bring them back, Peter, We're 0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:37.600 going to take them from extinct to back a hero 0:01:37.760 --> 0:01:43.040 to real life Jurassic Park. There is a company that's 0:01:43.080 --> 0:01:44.240 gonna do it, and we. 0:01:44.600 --> 0:01:48.040 Really really no, no, really, And it also brings up 0:01:48.640 --> 0:01:52.480 we're fascinated with bringing stuff, bringing our lives back. Sure 0:01:52.560 --> 0:01:55.280 like their techniques to bring people back from the dead, 0:01:55.760 --> 0:01:56.800 new techniques for that. 0:01:57.640 --> 0:01:59.080 New definitions, the definition. 0:01:59.400 --> 0:02:01.880 There may be a definition for death, which is amazing 0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:05.160 and playing with the genetic code. There was a scientist 0:02:05.240 --> 0:02:09.800 in China who got arrested for changing the genetics of 0:02:09.840 --> 0:02:12.680 a baby who had an illness, and he went in 0:02:12.760 --> 0:02:17.800 and was able to manipulate. Our guest is involved in that. 0:02:17.919 --> 0:02:18.760 Not that kind of stuff. 0:02:18.800 --> 0:02:21.919 How are we going to create Captain America's if we're 0:02:21.960 --> 0:02:28.079 not allowed to genetically manipulate thinking and cryogenically freeze and preserve. 0:02:28.760 --> 0:02:29.480 It's happening. 0:02:29.600 --> 0:02:33.399 It's happening, and our guest today, doctor George Church. 0:02:33.440 --> 0:02:35.280 Is one of the people that's making it happen. 0:02:35.520 --> 0:02:39.359 Doctor Church is a geneticist, a molecular engineer, a chemist, 0:02:39.360 --> 0:02:44.480 an entrepreneur, a pioneer in personal genomics and synthetic biology. 0:02:44.800 --> 0:02:47.400 He is a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, 0:02:47.440 --> 0:02:51.400 professor of Health Sciences and Technology at Harvard University and 0:02:51.440 --> 0:02:53.919 at MIT, and a founding member I'm going to say 0:02:53.919 --> 0:02:58.000 this wrong the wiss or the Weis's Institute for Biologically 0:02:58.000 --> 0:03:02.200 Inspired Engineering at Harvard. In twenty seventeen, Time magazine listed 0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:04.639 him in the Time one hundred, the list of one 0:03:04.680 --> 0:03:08.240 hundred most influential people in the world, listened as one 0:03:08.240 --> 0:03:10.880 of the top eight famous geneticists of all time. 0:03:11.200 --> 0:03:13.640 That's all of human history. That's our guest. 0:03:13.880 --> 0:03:15.960 You know what, you know what what? Time just found 0:03:15.960 --> 0:03:17.799 out he's on our show. He went down to he 0:03:17.880 --> 0:03:20.239 went down eleven. That's why we off the list. 0:03:20.240 --> 0:03:24.200 You're off the story to doctor George, good to see you. 0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:25.320 It's great to be here. 0:03:25.480 --> 0:03:27.120 Can I ask you one question before we get into 0:03:27.160 --> 0:03:30.280 the topic, because this depresses me. I hear your bio. 0:03:31.480 --> 0:03:34.840 In one hundred years, I couldn't do all of that stuff. Classes, 0:03:34.840 --> 0:03:36.840 a night's school and this and then my team and 0:03:36.880 --> 0:03:39.040 you're going to here. I get a pizza, I lie down, 0:03:39.120 --> 0:03:42.680 I take a nap, I get up, I really wonder 0:03:42.760 --> 0:03:45.120 what kind of person to you that you did all that? 0:03:45.200 --> 0:03:47.800 Do you have like unlimited energy? Do not sleep? Are 0:03:47.800 --> 0:03:49.040 you taking uppers down? 0:03:49.040 --> 0:03:49.160 At? 0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:51.160 What are you doing? How do you do all of that? 0:03:51.360 --> 0:03:51.680 Yeah? 0:03:52.360 --> 0:03:54.640 No, I actually I'm just like you. I take a 0:03:54.680 --> 0:03:59.600 lot of nabs. I'm narcoleptic, which means I fall asleep. 0:04:00.040 --> 0:04:01.280 He'll particularly want to. 0:04:02.840 --> 0:04:07.160 Yeah, boy, we got to work hard. We have to 0:04:07.160 --> 0:04:09.560 be very to put people asleep, by the way, so 0:04:09.600 --> 0:04:11.880 we will be cognizant of your north. But it is, 0:04:11.960 --> 0:04:14.920 it is. I got to tell you, I've not often 0:04:14.960 --> 0:04:18.680 do I see a bio that has that much. It 0:04:18.800 --> 0:04:21.200 really has that much accomplishment. So congratulations. 0:04:21.240 --> 0:04:23.640 It just makes us feel worse about us I did 0:04:23.760 --> 0:04:26.560 for harmorn't even get past it. And so bring the 0:04:26.600 --> 0:04:27.359 big issue. 0:04:27.680 --> 0:04:30.279 We saw the article about bringing back the Wooly Mammoth, 0:04:30.279 --> 0:04:33.240 and I guess Jason and I both had We went really, no, really, 0:04:33.800 --> 0:04:34.919 and both of us went. 0:04:35.400 --> 0:04:38.960 Why why why? Why? 0:04:39.240 --> 0:04:41.480 Now you're first of all, can you explain to us 0:04:41.600 --> 0:04:47.599 what your participation in that program is, specifically. 0:04:49.320 --> 0:04:50.840 Almost every aspect of it. 0:04:51.320 --> 0:04:51.599 Uh. 0:04:52.000 --> 0:04:55.600 We we didn't really have much. 0:04:56.279 --> 0:05:00.640 Ability to do it for a decade, partly because technology 0:05:00.640 --> 0:05:05.120 and partly because of funding. Didn't really seek that much funding. 0:05:05.920 --> 0:05:09.520 But now, as of about a year and a half ago, 0:05:09.640 --> 0:05:14.840 we have adequate funding. And yeah, so I came up 0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:20.480 with the idea partly prompted by people like you asking questions. 0:05:20.520 --> 0:05:22.880 A journalist from the New York Times asked the right question, 0:05:23.000 --> 0:05:25.719 and I started thinking about it and decided we could 0:05:25.760 --> 0:05:28.080 do it. But it was only recently that we could 0:05:28.440 --> 0:05:32.520 We really could do it. So I developed my lab 0:05:32.600 --> 0:05:37.839 developed the technology for making multiple changes in DNA, essentially 0:05:37.839 --> 0:05:44.160 writing DNA into elephant cells to WOW, to make them 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:47.200 less endangered and to make them more adaptable. 0:05:46.640 --> 0:05:50.680 To the cold. As a starting point for this adventure. 0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:51.800 Wow. 0:05:52.040 --> 0:05:53.719 First of all, I want to know at the end 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:56.359 of this the name of every funder he has, because 0:05:56.920 --> 0:05:58.800 he went to them and said, Hey, I'm going to 0:05:58.800 --> 0:06:00.880 bring back the mammoth, and they went, I'm in. We 0:06:00.920 --> 0:06:02.680 can get funding for almost anything. 0:06:02.720 --> 0:06:03.320 We wanted to. 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:09.240 Doctor Church very very very close. We're very close. 0:06:09.760 --> 0:06:14.479 So why so Peter's right, that begs the question why 0:06:15.640 --> 0:06:16.080 do this? 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:16.640 What? 0:06:16.640 --> 0:06:17.360 What? What? What? 0:06:17.360 --> 0:06:20.400 What's the guiding light for you on this project? 0:06:21.120 --> 0:06:28.280 Well, so we wanted to both deal with endangered species, 0:06:28.279 --> 0:06:32.800 developed technologies that could help endangered species and also endangered 0:06:32.920 --> 0:06:37.440 environments uh in to some extent, including the global environment. 0:06:37.800 --> 0:06:40.279 And so that it's a little complicated answer. 0:06:40.360 --> 0:06:40.799 I'm sorry. 0:06:41.640 --> 0:06:44.800 Answers will be will be simple, but this one is 0:06:45.200 --> 0:06:49.880 that the elephant is endangered. All species of elephant are 0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:55.040 endangered because they coexist with humans that either uh, they're 0:06:55.080 --> 0:06:58.159 a nuisance to them by destroying their farms, or they 0:06:58.160 --> 0:07:02.080 are a target for coaching for their ivory. It would 0:07:02.080 --> 0:07:04.479 be nice if they could have a homeland. They used 0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:07.800 to be spread all over almost the entire globe, and 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:10.960 one of those prominent places were close relatives to the 0:07:11.000 --> 0:07:14.120 modern elephants. The Willie mammos were present in the Arctic, 0:07:15.680 --> 0:07:17.840 So if we could make them cold resistant, then they 0:07:17.840 --> 0:07:21.840 would have twenty million square kilometers they could roam all 0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:25.720 over where they're basically or almost no people and much 0:07:25.800 --> 0:07:32.560 less conflict, and that then they can return that favor 0:07:32.640 --> 0:07:33.400 to the Arctic. 0:07:33.720 --> 0:07:34.800 The Arctics in big. 0:07:34.640 --> 0:07:40.200 Trouble because it's melting, and it's melting it twice the 0:07:40.280 --> 0:07:43.040 rate of the temperatures going up twice the rate of 0:07:43.080 --> 0:07:46.080 most other parts of the Earth. And what's its risk 0:07:46.320 --> 0:07:49.360 is in the art there's a lot of methane they 0:07:49.400 --> 0:07:51.960 can be released, and then methane is eighty times worse 0:07:51.960 --> 0:07:56.080 than carbon dioxide. Then the question is, well, how can 0:07:56.600 --> 0:08:03.080 hold resistant elephants help keep the permafrost frozen? And in 0:08:03.160 --> 0:08:05.600 the three ways, and then I'm done with this long hand. 0:08:06.560 --> 0:08:10.920 The three ways are that a lot of the snow 0:08:11.040 --> 0:08:14.120 builds up kind of like a down blanket in the trees, 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:18.880 and there's no animals that can really feel they could 0:08:18.960 --> 0:08:23.360 penetrate and tromp down the snow and look there. But 0:08:23.880 --> 0:08:26.239 not too long ago, a few thousand years ago, before 0:08:26.280 --> 0:08:32.280 the mammoth ten thousand years ago, before the mammoths were extinct, actually. 0:08:31.960 --> 0:08:32.760 Before a lot of. 0:08:32.760 --> 0:08:38.240 Herbivores were driven to extinction in the Arctic. They were 0:08:38.400 --> 0:08:41.160 it was mostly grasslands. It was very rich, much richer, 0:08:41.360 --> 0:08:45.439 more species rich than it is today. And the grasslands 0:08:45.480 --> 0:08:48.120 were easy to maintain, and they chomped around them the snow, 0:08:48.280 --> 0:08:52.320 and then the cold winter wind which minus forty degrees 0:08:52.360 --> 0:08:57.000 would get down and freeze the permafrost every year after 0:08:57.040 --> 0:08:57.760 the summer thaw. 0:08:58.840 --> 0:09:01.920 So that's one thing. Is is that the. 0:09:01.640 --> 0:09:06.120 Changing trees the grass allows the herbivores to trump it 0:09:06.240 --> 0:09:09.800 down and dig around and let the wind penetry. The 0:09:09.880 --> 0:09:14.559 second thing is that grass is more uh better photosynthesis 0:09:14.600 --> 0:09:18.679 and carbon sess trace sequestration, pulling the carbon outside out 0:09:18.720 --> 0:09:22.920 of the air. And the third thing is it's better 0:09:22.960 --> 0:09:27.680 at reflecting uh you know, the heat and the light 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:32.000 that heats up the promocross. So those are the three 0:09:32.480 --> 0:09:37.559 three reasons the elephants might tulp with probably one of 0:09:37.600 --> 0:09:41.440 the biggest risks to glow warming, which humans are not. 0:09:44.400 --> 0:09:46.840 One is amazing because that I got to tell you 0:09:47.040 --> 0:09:49.960 that answer alone, just spun my head around on this 0:09:50.200 --> 0:09:54.160 entire thing, because it really to me at first glance, 0:09:54.280 --> 0:09:57.480 and and I would imagine then to a lot of people, 0:09:57.600 --> 0:10:01.920 this seemed like a sort of ego driven project about 0:10:01.960 --> 0:10:03.880 we can do it, so we will do it in 0:10:03.920 --> 0:10:05.760 a sort of Jurassic parky. 0:10:05.400 --> 0:10:06.640 In kind of a way. 0:10:06.920 --> 0:10:13.120 But the notion that it actually preserves a species that 0:10:13.320 --> 0:10:19.480 is endangered currently and allows them to inhabit a different 0:10:19.480 --> 0:10:23.520 part of an impact, and an impact that is that 0:10:24.160 --> 0:10:24.760 my head is. 0:10:25.440 --> 0:10:27.800 Thinking outside of the box, outside of that box, and 0:10:27.800 --> 0:10:29.960 outside of that box, because one of the questions I 0:10:30.000 --> 0:10:31.680 was going to ask you is how does this apply 0:10:32.240 --> 0:10:33.920 to all the extinction? Because they see the rate of 0:10:33.920 --> 0:10:37.200 extinction is just so rapid. But the other question, man, 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:39.719 is you know when you bring back an animal, is 0:10:39.720 --> 0:10:42.040 it based on good eating? Because I saw there was 0:10:42.080 --> 0:10:44.080 a story about the massive meatball that was made from 0:10:44.120 --> 0:10:47.280 only mammoths DNA, which they put out there just to 0:10:47.360 --> 0:10:50.079 show that they could do cultured meat in creation. 0:10:50.679 --> 0:10:51.200 Who did this? 0:10:51.280 --> 0:10:53.720 There's a company, the ones that that that is going 0:10:53.800 --> 0:10:56.400 to produce cultured meat, which again is to help save 0:10:56.440 --> 0:10:59.400 the environment ostensibly, so they did the woly mammoths to 0:10:59.400 --> 0:11:02.520 get attention for this. Do you what do you think about? 0:11:02.600 --> 0:11:06.400 Is that a realistic thing? Is cultured meat and bringing 0:11:06.440 --> 0:11:09.240 back animals for that reason a thing? 0:11:10.240 --> 0:11:12.800 Well, ironically, I work both on the. 0:11:14.400 --> 0:11:18.360 Ancient and endangered species that we were just talking about 0:11:18.520 --> 0:11:23.360 and also on cultured meat. So with a company called 0:11:23.440 --> 0:11:27.640 upside Yes, and that was not the company that did 0:11:27.679 --> 0:11:30.120 the stunt. I guess they felt they didn't need to 0:11:30.760 --> 0:11:36.440 because they could easily credit with my cooperation, I think 0:11:36.600 --> 0:11:40.719 it is realistic. I'm a vegan myself, have been, I 0:11:40.720 --> 0:11:44.679 don't know, mostly since nineteen seventy three. There are a 0:11:44.720 --> 0:11:50.080 lot of vegan burgers that taste as good as regular burgers, 0:11:50.200 --> 0:11:54.480 or as I can tell, and the cultured meat is 0:11:54.559 --> 0:11:58.960 not vegan, but it's also not arming animals and not 0:11:59.440 --> 0:12:03.000 maybe not expensive events right now sincerely expensive. 0:12:03.520 --> 0:12:05.760 So I don't know what the answer is. 0:12:06.160 --> 0:12:09.840 I'm kind of putting a little bit of scientific advice 0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:13.880 into each of these solutions. I think the vegan one 0:12:13.920 --> 0:12:27.200 is probably the most cost effective and long term. 0:12:27.240 --> 0:12:31.880 So I now have clarity on the specifics of the 0:12:31.880 --> 0:12:35.960 mammoth project. But we've also discovered, you know, and perhaps 0:12:36.000 --> 0:12:38.960 you're working on this, the Dodo. There's a project where 0:12:38.960 --> 0:12:43.199 they're trying to bring the Dodo back, the Christmas rat, 0:12:43.559 --> 0:12:47.920 the Tasmanian tiger, And I guess my head goes to again, 0:12:49.400 --> 0:12:51.880 why why we're bringing back the Dodo? Do we need 0:12:51.920 --> 0:12:54.800 more rats? Are we running low on the rat population 0:12:55.000 --> 0:12:59.160 that we need to? You know, how do how to 0:12:59.240 --> 0:13:03.400 the extent that you know, who determines and how do 0:13:03.520 --> 0:13:07.560 they determine what animal is worth de extinctifying? 0:13:08.600 --> 0:13:11.200 Right, So a lot of this is being done by 0:13:11.280 --> 0:13:15.960 a single company called Colossal, which which I'm a co 0:13:16.040 --> 0:13:19.720 founder of along with Ben Lamb. They're they're responsible at 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:23.280 least for the Dodo, the Thilocene, and the mammoth. They 0:13:23.280 --> 0:13:26.400 have not announced any others and I think the rat 0:13:26.679 --> 0:13:30.080 was just something where people studying the rat wanted attention 0:13:30.679 --> 0:13:34.400 and they claimed that they couldn't be extincted. Oh, but 0:13:34.600 --> 0:13:37.720 I don't think anybody is actively interested in doing that. 0:13:38.120 --> 0:13:43.040 But I think the technology is is. I don't see 0:13:43.040 --> 0:13:46.200 anything about the technology that rules out the possibility of 0:13:46.320 --> 0:13:48.760 synthesizing a complete gheno. 0:13:49.720 --> 0:13:53.280 But so specifically, why the dodo. Is there a reason 0:13:53.360 --> 0:13:55.040 allah the mammoth for bringing the dodo? 0:13:55.480 --> 0:13:58.600 So both the Thilocene and the Dodo have to do 0:13:58.679 --> 0:14:03.360 with national interest, that there's a national pride. It would 0:14:03.360 --> 0:14:06.440 be like if the American eagle went extinct tomorrow, would 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:09.040 you say, well that's done, you know, forget about it, 0:14:09.679 --> 0:14:13.200 or would you you know, molt an effort. I don't 0:14:13.200 --> 0:14:16.839 think there's the same strong ecological argument that we have 0:14:17.160 --> 0:14:22.040 for the cold resistant elephant for the mammoth elephant hybrids. 0:14:21.520 --> 0:14:22.560 There, but there might be. 0:14:23.160 --> 0:14:27.160 But I think that the countries that where they went 0:14:27.240 --> 0:14:31.760 extinct recently, much more recently than the mammoths, still feel 0:14:31.800 --> 0:14:34.640 that their spirit is still there and should be given 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:36.960 it another chance to give. 0:14:36.800 --> 0:14:39.400 The them their DODO. So when we talked about these issues, 0:14:39.840 --> 0:14:42.600 you've mentioned the permafrage and we've talked about it another show. 0:14:43.160 --> 0:14:47.960 Permafrost is melting at a at a rate that's really dangerous, 0:14:48.400 --> 0:14:51.320 and once in the permafras are viruses that we're going 0:14:51.400 --> 0:14:53.280 to have to deal with from hundreds of years ago, 0:14:53.280 --> 0:14:54.600 thousands of years ago that we don't know if we're 0:14:54.640 --> 0:14:58.000 resistant to. Animals are being uncovered. All kinds of ramifications 0:14:58.040 --> 0:15:00.160 of that, and the permafrost covers a good part part 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:03.480 of the planet. So when this thing starts melting, holy crap, 0:15:03.480 --> 0:15:06.280 We've got a lot of stuff to look at. I'm 0:15:06.280 --> 0:15:10.600 curious with someone like you. Are scientists working independently to 0:15:10.680 --> 0:15:14.440 solve issues because there's a monetary reward with a big company, 0:15:14.960 --> 0:15:18.320 or are is the community sharing information? Are you sharing 0:15:18.400 --> 0:15:21.600 it with China? Are you sharing it with Iran? Is 0:15:21.640 --> 0:15:25.840 everybody their top scientists on board because they all realize 0:15:26.600 --> 0:15:29.600 the extent of all of these issues, bringing back the 0:15:29.640 --> 0:15:33.160 extincting basically to save the planet. Is that happening now 0:15:33.160 --> 0:15:34.920 because we understand where we're at. 0:15:36.560 --> 0:15:37.400 I think this is. 0:15:38.920 --> 0:15:42.600 Most of my experience in science and engineering has been 0:15:42.640 --> 0:15:47.160 one of sharing reciprocated all over the world. There are 0:15:47.160 --> 0:15:49.640 a few examples where there's some kind of race for 0:15:49.680 --> 0:15:56.360 a particular monetary or goal or nationalistic goal. But I 0:15:56.360 --> 0:15:59.560 think this is definitely one where as far as I know, 0:15:59.560 --> 0:16:01.720 the whole world world wants to do what it can 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:07.480 to stop climate that to have climate change be under 0:16:07.480 --> 0:16:11.120 control or reversed. I think the debate there is more 0:16:11.240 --> 0:16:15.040 about how do we do it without going broke, more 0:16:15.080 --> 0:16:18.000 than how do we not share? And I have to 0:16:18.040 --> 0:16:22.280 give credit where credits do a lot of my inspiration 0:16:22.480 --> 0:16:25.840 for this project with the elephants and the mammoth came 0:16:25.880 --> 0:16:30.960 from Russian scientist Sergey Zimov, who has about one hundred 0:16:30.960 --> 0:16:34.240 and sixty square kilometers of land given to him by 0:16:34.280 --> 0:16:38.320 the Russian government in the northernmost part of Siberia, and 0:16:38.360 --> 0:16:44.400 I visited there. We collaborate basically, and yeah, we're sharing 0:16:44.520 --> 0:16:49.440 all that information. He's sharing it. He has monitoring for carbon, 0:16:49.480 --> 0:16:52.440 diacin and methane on the land, and he does experiments 0:16:52.480 --> 0:16:57.320 where he reintroduces herbivores no elephants yet, but many other 0:16:57.400 --> 0:16:59.640 kinds of herbivores that are well adapted to the Arctic 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:03.320 to see their impact on the forest versus grass and 0:17:03.360 --> 0:17:08.480 the and the release of methane. So that's one example. 0:17:08.640 --> 0:17:11.240 I mean, I could go on about all the examples 0:17:11.240 --> 0:17:11.719 of sharing. 0:17:11.840 --> 0:17:18.280 Now, considering the ecological impact that you're talking about, is 0:17:18.320 --> 0:17:21.480 it dip I would imagine it should be easier to 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:23.919 get funding for something like this, But is it difficult 0:17:24.320 --> 0:17:26.160 to get funding for these projects? 0:17:27.160 --> 0:17:29.560 I think the difficulty in this case I have to 0:17:30.240 --> 0:17:33.199 lay all the blame at my own feet. That is 0:17:33.240 --> 0:17:36.520 to say, I just assumed it was difficult, and so 0:17:36.640 --> 0:17:40.480 I didn't actually try. In my defense, I was working 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:42.840 on the technology that would be useful for a variety 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:45.560 of different things, including this, and so I didn't feel 0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:47.040 like there was a giant rush to go out and 0:17:47.119 --> 0:17:51.680 raise money. And quite frankly, I don't like making a 0:17:51.760 --> 0:17:56.480 lot of noise. I have to say. I do get 0:17:56.480 --> 0:18:00.800 attention occasionally, but it's not the it's not my jas. 0:18:00.840 --> 0:18:02.160 I'm going to write your check. By the way, Jason, 0:18:02.200 --> 0:18:03.520 you write a check for the mammage project. 0:18:03.640 --> 0:18:07.240 Yeah, absolutely, No, I'm doing the DODO. I'm gonna do Yeah, 0:18:07.560 --> 0:18:08.400 I'm doing the dodo. 0:18:08.640 --> 0:18:11.560 Wow, all right, because it just it seems you judging 0:18:11.680 --> 0:18:15.040 it appears to like the dot whatever animal, by the way, 0:18:15.040 --> 0:18:17.840 you should do that. They do it to zoo adopt 0:18:18.720 --> 0:18:21.320 a de extinct animal. Yes, did they do it to zoo? 0:18:21.359 --> 0:18:22.080 Well it works. 0:18:22.160 --> 0:18:24.600 Come on, you're sparading at the fifty degrees. I think 0:18:24.640 --> 0:18:27.160 you show the picture and you say you do sad music, 0:18:27.200 --> 0:18:30.040 and would you like to see the Dodo back? He 0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:32.919 deserves to be back. Send your check to and in 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:34.440 your LIFETIMEE. We couldn't have it. 0:18:34.520 --> 0:18:36.200 Now, I'd probably do you know what, I get one 0:18:36.200 --> 0:18:39.040 of the little frogs that disappeared. I'd probably get one 0:18:39.040 --> 0:18:41.520 of those you like. No, I'm just saying that would 0:18:41.520 --> 0:18:43.840 be if it was a lottery and they drew my 0:18:43.960 --> 0:18:45.800 name in an animal, I'd get the little frog. 0:18:46.160 --> 0:18:48.800 Your voice because you went there, let me ask the doctor. Yeah, 0:18:48.840 --> 0:18:51.439 I'm hearing my mother's voice right now, going they're extinct 0:18:51.440 --> 0:18:54.119 because they're supposed to be. Letting go, let it go, 0:18:54.160 --> 0:18:55.880 bring it. But why are you playing with that? Keep 0:18:55.880 --> 0:18:57.919 what's here here and let that go it? It was 0:18:58.000 --> 0:19:02.320 meant to be gone. Resonate with you, my mother. 0:19:03.359 --> 0:19:05.280 I mean I can, I can, I can see it. 0:19:05.680 --> 0:19:05.960 Uh. 0:19:06.400 --> 0:19:10.360 But to some extent we're mainly we're not really not. 0:19:10.760 --> 0:19:16.040 Initially bringing back the mammoth. We're making the endangered elephants. 0:19:16.040 --> 0:19:19.080 So it's not extinct yet, got it, don't let it go, 0:19:19.600 --> 0:19:22.760 and now we may get around to the mammoth pretty quickly. 0:19:22.800 --> 0:19:26.240 The technology is improving the point where we could make 0:19:26.280 --> 0:19:28.719 all the changes rather than just the cold resistant ones. 0:19:29.160 --> 0:19:32.240 But there's no there's no rush on that. I think 0:19:32.280 --> 0:19:34.560 there is a rush on the on the cold resistance 0:19:34.600 --> 0:19:39.000 of the climate change, and and so that might so 0:19:39.080 --> 0:19:42.000 we don't have to deal with the extinction except the 0:19:42.080 --> 0:19:45.480 extinct species issue, except for the dodo and the biologic 0:19:45.760 --> 0:19:46.080 there is. 0:19:47.320 --> 0:19:49.760 If I understand this correctly, I could be I'm about 0:19:49.800 --> 0:19:52.439 to be my ignorance is thrown on my face. But 0:19:52.560 --> 0:19:57.359 because you are using non extinct animals as part of 0:19:57.560 --> 0:20:04.480 this regeneration process, you're not literally recreating a wooly mammoth. 0:20:04.560 --> 0:20:08.800 You're creating a hybrid using the genetics of a wooly mammoth. 0:20:09.080 --> 0:20:12.280 In all these projects, right, you're not literally bringing back 0:20:12.320 --> 0:20:13.360 a species from the dead. 0:20:13.400 --> 0:20:15.400 You are creating a new hybrid species. 0:20:16.560 --> 0:20:19.520 That is correct, But there's nothing we haven't ruled out 0:20:19.560 --> 0:20:26.080 the possibily we could get it one percent mammoth. So 0:20:26.240 --> 0:20:29.240 that's just not our initial priority. And I can say 0:20:29.240 --> 0:20:32.040 that not only is it not our initial priority, but 0:20:32.080 --> 0:20:34.680 it might. But there's there are things that we can 0:20:34.720 --> 0:20:40.120 do that are neither mammoth nor modern elephants that would 0:20:40.160 --> 0:20:40.760 be beneficial. 0:20:41.359 --> 0:20:46.080 Are there medical applications that we can see today presently 0:20:46.160 --> 0:20:48.080 that are offshoots of all the work you're doing where 0:20:48.119 --> 0:20:50.199 they're because people listening to just going bringing back a 0:20:50.200 --> 0:20:52.440 mammoths is something that's great and it's kind of sci fi. 0:20:52.600 --> 0:20:55.159 And I hear that the permafarce and mouthing whatever. But 0:20:55.440 --> 0:20:58.480 does this yield medical results continuously? Where you go, Wow, 0:20:58.720 --> 0:21:01.080 this can be applied to ms or whatever. 0:21:03.280 --> 0:21:07.000 Yes, it's not that far off in the future either. 0:21:07.080 --> 0:21:10.119 I think we have done a very similar set of 0:21:10.119 --> 0:21:15.440 experiments in a way de risks the elephant project on pigs. 0:21:15.480 --> 0:21:18.560 So in pigs, we've made sixty nine changes in their genomes. 0:21:18.600 --> 0:21:23.120 So think of each edit. We call them editing the genome. 0:21:23.400 --> 0:21:26.359 Each edit is difficult. It would be like editing Mount 0:21:26.400 --> 0:21:28.440 Rosmore or something to change one of the phases. 0:21:28.520 --> 0:21:29.639 That's a lot of work to do. 0:21:29.720 --> 0:21:29.920 One. 0:21:30.480 --> 0:21:33.320 We did sixty nine of them, and those pigs are 0:21:33.359 --> 0:21:37.960 healthy and their impact on medicine is that their organs 0:21:37.960 --> 0:21:43.160 are being transplanted now into non human primates and into humans. 0:21:43.560 --> 0:21:49.320 The clinical trials phase is just beginning, so that not 0:21:49.440 --> 0:21:54.720 only addresses the shortage of organs worldwide, but also it 0:21:54.760 --> 0:21:58.040 allows us to make organs that are in a certain 0:21:58.080 --> 0:22:05.040 stance healthier on demand, resistant to certain human paths. 0:22:05.080 --> 0:22:06.240 It's amazing and so on. 0:22:06.760 --> 0:22:08.119 It is so clear. 0:22:09.680 --> 0:22:13.600 That the work you're doing seems massively beneficial to everyone 0:22:13.640 --> 0:22:17.560 and everything. But do you have any feelings about personally 0:22:18.080 --> 0:22:21.200 or do you respond in some way to the people 0:22:21.240 --> 0:22:25.520 that would look at the work you're doing and say 0:22:25.640 --> 0:22:30.720 you're playing god, that you are you know, changing the 0:22:31.400 --> 0:22:34.240 ethics of it exactly? I mean, I know, I totally 0:22:34.280 --> 0:22:39.880 get that it is beneficial work and that the intent 0:22:40.240 --> 0:22:44.119 is to benefit the planet and humankind. But when you, 0:22:45.480 --> 0:22:47.760 for instance, I'm thinking, like if Peter heard that you 0:22:47.800 --> 0:22:50.959 made sixty nine genetic changes to a pig so that 0:22:51.000 --> 0:22:54.080 we can now have pigs born to harvest their organs, 0:22:54.400 --> 0:22:57.399 they might have a reaction to that. What is your 0:22:57.440 --> 0:22:58.399