Scan barcode
dreesreads's review against another edition
4.0
"A Second Chance for Extinct Animals"? What exactly does that mean? Kornfeldt examines the various "de-extinction" projects going on around the world, as well as past attempts at species re-creation (the aurochs). She looks at the ethics of the projects themselves, as well as potential ramifications of success. She does a great job of explaining the projects themselves as well as the people working on them (from trained scientists in top-of-the-line labs to breeders not unlike cat/dog breeders.) As a non-scientist, I found this book to be very well done, with the science explained at a level of detail perfect for me.
What is currently going on? There is cloning (only possible for the Northern White Rhino, which is functionally extinct but cells from many individuals are alive but frozen); controlled breeding of close species (the auroch); genentic modification (the American chestnut tree, also functionally extinct, as discussed in [b:The Overstory|40180098|The Overstory|Richard Powers|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1555688602s/40180098.jpg|57662223]; corals); DNA and cell manipulation of related species (wooly mammoth, passenger pigeon, dinosaurs). The science that enabled people in Jurassic Park to create dinosaurs absolutely does not exist right now. (Pet peeve: not until the endnotes does the author acknowledge that Jurassic Park was a book before it was a movie, the entire text refers to the movie.)
She also looks at the ethics with these various projects. Is it ethical to be trying to evolve chickens back into dinosaurs as...pets? Is it ethical to try to recreate the passenger pigeon, that would be released into a very different world (also--no chestnut trees)? Is it a good idea to try to create a coral that can survive higher temperatures, or would it be better to search for such a coral that might occur naturally? Is it worthwhile to try to revolve a new woolly mammoth to help save the permafrost (explained in detail in chapter 15)--or would it be better to simply introduce lots of musk ox and horses to accomplish the same goal faster? How could you clone a Northern White Rhinoceros given that there are no artificial wombs to actually grow the clone? Could a Southern White Rhino be used? They are not exactly lab or domestic animals, is it even feasible?
In addition to the ethics of these projects, Kornfeldt also looks at questions that would arise given success: is a wooly mammoth engineered from an Asian elephant actually a woolly mammoth, or is it a new species or a GMO elephant? Is a reverse-bred auroch an auroch or a new species of cattle? Would passenger pigeons based on band-tailed pigeons be passenger pigeons? Does it matter? Would that passenger pigeon behave like a passenger pigeon or a band-tailed pigeon, which have very very different behaviors? Would any of these creates know how to fill their ancestors' niches, or would they need to be taught, and who could do the teaching? Given the history of invasive species, would releasing any of these projects into the wild be smart or potentially catastrophic? How would the modern world deal with passenger pigeons that acted like passenger pigeons, or how would Europe deal with auroch in all the open land?
There is a lot to think about in this book, and I found it fascinating. The translation (from Swedish) is also very well done, it did not feel awkward at all.
What is currently going on? There is cloning (only possible for the Northern White Rhino, which is functionally extinct but cells from many individuals are alive but frozen); controlled breeding of close species (the auroch); genentic modification (the American chestnut tree, also functionally extinct, as discussed in [b:The Overstory|40180098|The Overstory|Richard Powers|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1555688602s/40180098.jpg|57662223]; corals); DNA and cell manipulation of related species (wooly mammoth, passenger pigeon, dinosaurs). The science that enabled people in Jurassic Park to create dinosaurs absolutely does not exist right now. (Pet peeve: not until the endnotes does the author acknowledge that Jurassic Park was a book before it was a movie, the entire text refers to the movie.)
She also looks at the ethics with these various projects. Is it ethical to be trying to evolve chickens back into dinosaurs as...pets? Is it ethical to try to recreate the passenger pigeon, that would be released into a very different world (also--no chestnut trees)? Is it a good idea to try to create a coral that can survive higher temperatures, or would it be better to search for such a coral that might occur naturally? Is it worthwhile to try to revolve a new woolly mammoth to help save the permafrost (explained in detail in chapter 15)--or would it be better to simply introduce lots of musk ox and horses to accomplish the same goal faster? How could you clone a Northern White Rhinoceros given that there are no artificial wombs to actually grow the clone? Could a Southern White Rhino be used? They are not exactly lab or domestic animals, is it even feasible?
In addition to the ethics of these projects, Kornfeldt also looks at questions that would arise given success: is a wooly mammoth engineered from an Asian elephant actually a woolly mammoth, or is it a new species or a GMO elephant? Is a reverse-bred auroch an auroch or a new species of cattle? Would passenger pigeons based on band-tailed pigeons be passenger pigeons? Does it matter? Would that passenger pigeon behave like a passenger pigeon or a band-tailed pigeon, which have very very different behaviors? Would any of these creates know how to fill their ancestors' niches, or would they need to be taught, and who could do the teaching? Given the history of invasive species, would releasing any of these projects into the wild be smart or potentially catastrophic? How would the modern world deal with passenger pigeons that acted like passenger pigeons, or how would Europe deal with auroch in all the open land?
There is a lot to think about in this book, and I found it fascinating. The translation (from Swedish) is also very well done, it did not feel awkward at all.
luanam's review against another edition
5.0
4.5 (-.5 only because of technical formatting flaws in regards to her footnotes. This author has the best footnotes I have ever come across. They are positively packed with extra, often engaging information and fantastic links to other online and print resources but she did not have any embedded reference points for them. I only knew they were there because I have a habit of going to the back first.)
De-extinction. With the advances that have been made in gene technology there are scientists around the world to whom this is now a future possibility. One that they are working on today and are already seeing things and results that would have been thought impossible a few years ago and while we are not quite at the point of recreating a T-Rex, from the blood of a fossilised mosquito yet, one project has successfully reverse engineered a reptilean/crocodilean snout on an embryonic chicken. An embryo that for obvious ethical reasons was not brought to term.
It is into this world, of scientific curiosity and enthusiasm tempered by caution of possible impacts, that Torill Kornfeldt, a science journalist, ventures to interview scientists who around the world are involved in various attempts to bring back lost species - for some of these scientists this has and will be their life's work, so passionate and committed as they are to what they see as the importance of their work in not only bringing back a lost species but also in creating a richer, wilder environment that would come with each reintroduction. For George Church this would come from reintroducing the Mammoth to Siberia and the way it would naturally terraform it's environs; for Stewart it is an ambitiously optimistic vision of bioabundance - with cod in the sea back to its old larger scale self; for Ben Novak, born in 1987, from the age of 14 it has been the reintroduction of the passenger pigeon and to see it in its vast swoops acting as a regenerating forest fire for sections of wild land (he does acknowledge that with the vast swoops come vast amounts of pigeon poop); and yes, there is a dinosaur dude among many more (but he does not intend that there should be herds of dinos in the wild rather perhaps "chicken sized dinosaur pets"p185).
This book however, is not just a exploration of the science and scientists behind these de-extinction projects - though it definitely is satisfyingly rich in these areas, full of intriguing material such as the fact that scientists have managed to reconstruct the molecule in the mammoth haemoglobin, needed to supply oxygen to body parts exposed to the extreme cold, necessary as the ordinary molecule of an elephant would not have been able to supply the oxygen needed.
No, in addition to exploring science, the book is also a philosophical enquiry into both what it means for the individual species under the resurrection scope and also what it means for efforts going into conserving today's ecosystems, the ethics, the politics and the people involved. It especially gets interesting when discussion centres on how gene tech can not just bring back extinct species but also increase the genetic diversity of current species in danger of inbreeding because of a scarcity of numbers or problems caused by a genetic bottleneck.
The other aspect that I really enjoyed in this book was how throughout it the authors voice was clear both in her love of science, even when she was feeling a bit cautious about some of the possible Frankensteinean elements, and her openness and appreciation of her interview subjects. Moreover, she had an observational humour that came through at moments either when recounting her journey or when recounting the history leading up to some excerpts. To give a brief example of this I'll insert the beginning of chapter 10, which is devoted to the auroch:
When the Red Army was marching on Berlin, Hermann Goring is said to have gone out to his country estate, Carinhall, and personally shot his cattle to prevent their falling into Russian hands. His sense of priorities may strike us as being more than usually unhinged for a man about to lose a war. Presumably, Goring was convinced that he was acting in the best interst of the Aryans - the Aryan breed of cattle, that is, rather than some human variety. The thing is, he believed his cattle were aurochs....
As mentioned, at the beginning of the review, I loved Torill's fulsome footnotes (even after the book is finished they will still keep me going for a while) and I thought I would just add a snippit of a sampling here below: Her whole list can be found here on her website http://kornfeldt.com/notes-and-further-reading/
Chapter 1: Can I See Sarah Palin’s House from Here?
The history of Chersky and the whole of eastern Siberia is fascinating, as is the town’s development after the fall of the Soviet Union. Here is an Associated Press news article about the time after the collapse of the USSR: ‘Isolated Siberian Town Shrivels after Soviet Era’ (2011) http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/01/08/isolated-siberian-town-shrivels-soviet-era.html
The research station’s homepage is: http://terrychapin.org/station.html
Neanderthals used mammoth bones to build houses. Research into the subject is summarised in a news article: ‘Neanderthal Home Made of Mammoth Bones Discovered in Ukraine’ (December 2011) Quaternary International, vol. 247, pp. 1–362, https://phys.org/news/2011-12-neanderthal-home-mammoth-bones-ukraine.html
The scientific article in which Nikita and Sergey Zimov try to calculate how many animals lived on the mammoth steppe and compare the result with the population of Africa: ‘Mammoth Steppe: a high-productivity phenomenon’ (December 2012) Quaternary Science Reviews, vol. 57, pp. 26–45, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277379112003939
Calculations of when the first humans came to Siberia are based on the carbon 14 dating method: ‘The Yana RHS Site: humans in the Arctic before the last glacial maximum’ (2004) Science, http://science.sciencemag.org/content/303/5654/52
New scientific articles about what happened to the mammoths appear regularly. An example is: ‘Abrupt Warming Events Drove Late Pleistocene Holarctic Megafaunal Turnover’ (July 2015) Science, http://science.sciencemag.org/content/349/6248/602
Beth Shapiro writes about the extinction of the mammoth in the following scientific article: ‘Pattern of Extinction of the Woolly Mammoth in Beringia’ (June 2012) Nature Communications, vol. 3, https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms1881
‘Remaining continental mammoths, now concentrated in the north, disappeared in the early Holocene with development of extensive peatlands, wet tundra, birch shrubland and coniferous forest. Long sympatry in Siberia suggests that humans may be best seen as a synergistic cofactor in that extirpation. The extinction of island populations occurred at ~4 ka. Mammoth extinction was not due to a single cause, but followed a long trajectory in concert with changes in climate, habitat and human presence.’
See also: ‘Life and Extinction of Megafauna in the Ice-Age Arctic’ (September 2015) Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), vol. 112, http://www.pnas.org/content/112/46/14301.full
Questions about whether mammoths lived at the same time as the pyramids were being built proliferate on the internet, and I have seen many different answers. This is mine. The last mammoths died out about 4,000 years ago, and the pyramids at Giza were completed by around 2,560 BC (just over 4,500 years ago). By that time, there were no longer any mammoths living on the mainland, only on remote islands. See: ‘Radiocarbon Dating Evidence for Mammoths on Wrangel Island, Arctic Ocean’ (1995) Radiocarbon, vol. 37, pp. 1–6, https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/radiocarbon/article/viewFile/1640/1644
The trade in mammoth tusks is both open and covert. The estimate of 55 tonnes comes from a news article in National Geographic, which is well worth reading and beautifully illustrated: ‘Of Mammoths and Men’ (April 2013), http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/04/125-mammoth-tusks/larmer-text
‘Nearly 90 percent of all mammoth tusks hauled out of Siberia — estimated at more than 60 tons a year, though the actual figure may be higher — end up in China, where legions of the newly rich are entranced by ivory.’
De-extinction. With the advances that have been made in gene technology there are scientists around the world to whom this is now a future possibility. One that they are working on today and are already seeing things and results that would have been thought impossible a few years ago and while we are not quite at the point of recreating a T-Rex, from the blood of a fossilised mosquito yet, one project has successfully reverse engineered a reptilean/crocodilean snout on an embryonic chicken. An embryo that for obvious ethical reasons was not brought to term.
It is into this world, of scientific curiosity and enthusiasm tempered by caution of possible impacts, that Torill Kornfeldt, a science journalist, ventures to interview scientists who around the world are involved in various attempts to bring back lost species - for some of these scientists this has and will be their life's work, so passionate and committed as they are to what they see as the importance of their work in not only bringing back a lost species but also in creating a richer, wilder environment that would come with each reintroduction. For George Church this would come from reintroducing the Mammoth to Siberia and the way it would naturally terraform it's environs; for Stewart it is an ambitiously optimistic vision of bioabundance - with cod in the sea back to its old larger scale self; for Ben Novak, born in 1987, from the age of 14 it has been the reintroduction of the passenger pigeon and to see it in its vast swoops acting as a regenerating forest fire for sections of wild land (he does acknowledge that with the vast swoops come vast amounts of pigeon poop); and yes, there is a dinosaur dude among many more (but he does not intend that there should be herds of dinos in the wild rather perhaps "chicken sized dinosaur pets"p185).
This book however, is not just a exploration of the science and scientists behind these de-extinction projects - though it definitely is satisfyingly rich in these areas, full of intriguing material such as the fact that scientists have managed to reconstruct the molecule in the mammoth haemoglobin, needed to supply oxygen to body parts exposed to the extreme cold, necessary as the ordinary molecule of an elephant would not have been able to supply the oxygen needed.
No, in addition to exploring science, the book is also a philosophical enquiry into both what it means for the individual species under the resurrection scope and also what it means for efforts going into conserving today's ecosystems, the ethics, the politics and the people involved. It especially gets interesting when discussion centres on how gene tech can not just bring back extinct species but also increase the genetic diversity of current species in danger of inbreeding because of a scarcity of numbers or problems caused by a genetic bottleneck.
The other aspect that I really enjoyed in this book was how throughout it the authors voice was clear both in her love of science, even when she was feeling a bit cautious about some of the possible Frankensteinean elements, and her openness and appreciation of her interview subjects. Moreover, she had an observational humour that came through at moments either when recounting her journey or when recounting the history leading up to some excerpts. To give a brief example of this I'll insert the beginning of chapter 10, which is devoted to the auroch:
When the Red Army was marching on Berlin, Hermann Goring is said to have gone out to his country estate, Carinhall, and personally shot his cattle to prevent their falling into Russian hands. His sense of priorities may strike us as being more than usually unhinged for a man about to lose a war. Presumably, Goring was convinced that he was acting in the best interst of the Aryans - the Aryan breed of cattle, that is, rather than some human variety. The thing is, he believed his cattle were aurochs....
As mentioned, at the beginning of the review, I loved Torill's fulsome footnotes (even after the book is finished they will still keep me going for a while) and I thought I would just add a snippit of a sampling here below: Her whole list can be found here on her website http://kornfeldt.com/notes-and-further-reading/
Chapter 1: Can I See Sarah Palin’s House from Here?
The history of Chersky and the whole of eastern Siberia is fascinating, as is the town’s development after the fall of the Soviet Union. Here is an Associated Press news article about the time after the collapse of the USSR: ‘Isolated Siberian Town Shrivels after Soviet Era’ (2011) http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/01/08/isolated-siberian-town-shrivels-soviet-era.html
The research station’s homepage is: http://terrychapin.org/station.html
Neanderthals used mammoth bones to build houses. Research into the subject is summarised in a news article: ‘Neanderthal Home Made of Mammoth Bones Discovered in Ukraine’ (December 2011) Quaternary International, vol. 247, pp. 1–362, https://phys.org/news/2011-12-neanderthal-home-mammoth-bones-ukraine.html
The scientific article in which Nikita and Sergey Zimov try to calculate how many animals lived on the mammoth steppe and compare the result with the population of Africa: ‘Mammoth Steppe: a high-productivity phenomenon’ (December 2012) Quaternary Science Reviews, vol. 57, pp. 26–45, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277379112003939
Calculations of when the first humans came to Siberia are based on the carbon 14 dating method: ‘The Yana RHS Site: humans in the Arctic before the last glacial maximum’ (2004) Science, http://science.sciencemag.org/content/303/5654/52
New scientific articles about what happened to the mammoths appear regularly. An example is: ‘Abrupt Warming Events Drove Late Pleistocene Holarctic Megafaunal Turnover’ (July 2015) Science, http://science.sciencemag.org/content/349/6248/602
Beth Shapiro writes about the extinction of the mammoth in the following scientific article: ‘Pattern of Extinction of the Woolly Mammoth in Beringia’ (June 2012) Nature Communications, vol. 3, https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms1881
‘Remaining continental mammoths, now concentrated in the north, disappeared in the early Holocene with development of extensive peatlands, wet tundra, birch shrubland and coniferous forest. Long sympatry in Siberia suggests that humans may be best seen as a synergistic cofactor in that extirpation. The extinction of island populations occurred at ~4 ka. Mammoth extinction was not due to a single cause, but followed a long trajectory in concert with changes in climate, habitat and human presence.’
See also: ‘Life and Extinction of Megafauna in the Ice-Age Arctic’ (September 2015) Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), vol. 112, http://www.pnas.org/content/112/46/14301.full
Questions about whether mammoths lived at the same time as the pyramids were being built proliferate on the internet, and I have seen many different answers. This is mine. The last mammoths died out about 4,000 years ago, and the pyramids at Giza were completed by around 2,560 BC (just over 4,500 years ago). By that time, there were no longer any mammoths living on the mainland, only on remote islands. See: ‘Radiocarbon Dating Evidence for Mammoths on Wrangel Island, Arctic Ocean’ (1995) Radiocarbon, vol. 37, pp. 1–6, https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/radiocarbon/article/viewFile/1640/1644
The trade in mammoth tusks is both open and covert. The estimate of 55 tonnes comes from a news article in National Geographic, which is well worth reading and beautifully illustrated: ‘Of Mammoths and Men’ (April 2013), http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/04/125-mammoth-tusks/larmer-text
‘Nearly 90 percent of all mammoth tusks hauled out of Siberia — estimated at more than 60 tons a year, though the actual figure may be higher — end up in China, where legions of the newly rich are entranced by ivory.’
annarella's review against another edition
5.0
This is an enjoyable and interesting book that looks lat why and why not to recreate species now extinct.
The book is well researched, the exposition clear and entertaing.
It gives you a lof of food for thought.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to Scribe US and Edelweiss for this ARC
The book is well researched, the exposition clear and entertaing.
It gives you a lof of food for thought.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to Scribe US and Edelweiss for this ARC
vegebrarian's review against another edition
5.0
Plants, animals, habitats - we've hunted, destroyed, and eaten our way through the Sixth Extinction. This book talks to scientists on the cutting edge of cloning, genome mapping, and conservation. It's an examination of the human challenge of recreating something we've destroyed. In a scenario only Mary Shelley could have predicted, scientists explain their passion behind bringing extinct species back to life (crossing my fingers that I get to see a wooly mammoth in my lifetime). However the ethical questions raised by this cannot be ignored, nor can the ecological impact. A fascinating read.
tonstantweader's review against another edition
4.0
I was reading The Re-Origin of Species when He Jiankui announced he had edited the genes of two babies to make them resistant to the AIDS virus. When noted geneticist George Church rushed to his defense, it made sense considering what he had to say in this book. After all, he’s trying to create a mammoth. People were surprised by Church’s defense of He, but that’s because they had not read this book.
The Re-Origin of Species is an around-the-world tour of people working on reviving past species using all sorts of different approaches. Some, like Church, are working on searching for mammoth genes, finding fragments and piecing them together like a jigsaw puzzle in order to create a complete piece of DNA they can use to create some Asian elephant and mammoth hybrid that can replace the mammoth in Siberia, restoring the land to good health and perhaps saving the permafrost. Some would rather use what they learn from mammoth genes to alter the Asian elephant so it can live in the colder Siberian steppes since it is losing habitat.
Torill Kornfeldt goes from Siberia to the US to Europe and back to Siberia in her quest to understand the people working on resurrecting extinct species. There are several strategies employed, from trying to recreate the genetic map of the mammoth to trying to cross-breed several living species to create the characteristics of an extinct animal so this new critter could serve the same role in the environment.
There are good reasons to revive lost species or a simulacrum of them. For example, the loss of passenger pigeons may contribute to the massive wildfires in the West. The return of the mammoth could transform the landscape in ways that may save the permafrost and keep it from releasing the carbon and methane that would speed up climate change. Bringing back aurochs, or something like them could create a more diverse ecology in Europe.
I enjoyed The Re-Origin of Species very much. Kornfeldt has the good reporter’s ability to explain quickly and with clarity. She also paints the landscape with vivid imagery. She not only explores the various efforts of de-extinction, but also the conflicts, controversies, and ethical dilemmas. You can almost feel her wavering from one side to the other and she makes a good case for conservationists and de-extinctionists to talk more to each other.
I was fascinated by the idea that large herbivores like the auroch and the mammoth could change the environment in ways that would create a healthier, more diverse landscape. This book reminds us of what we have lost but gives us hope that something new may be found. I found myself thinking many of the ideas, some in conflict with each other, made a lot of sense. Kornfeldt even provides a handy list of pros and cons at the end.
One objection to de-extinction seemed very nonpersuasive to me. Susan Clayborn, a psychologist, thinks it would change our relationship with nature because we would feel less humbled by its vastness and variety. She fears that knowing we could bring back a species would reduce the beneficial effect people receive from spending time in nature. It’s as though she has never heard of dominion theology or seen mankind’s profligate assumption that nature is our servant, one we can exploit without regard for its well-being and health. We have erased many species from the face of the earth, I don’t think restoring a few of them will make us feel much differently.
This is a fascinating and timely book. We are already seeing the effects of climate change. The permafrost is melting. Who knew that we might find some way to mitigate that by looking to long-lost species.
I received a review copy of The Re-Origin of Species from the publisher.
The Re-Origin of Species: A Second Chance for Extinct Animals at Scribe Publications
Notes and further reading from the author
Torill Kornfeldt author site
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2018/12/12/9781947534360/
The Re-Origin of Species is an around-the-world tour of people working on reviving past species using all sorts of different approaches. Some, like Church, are working on searching for mammoth genes, finding fragments and piecing them together like a jigsaw puzzle in order to create a complete piece of DNA they can use to create some Asian elephant and mammoth hybrid that can replace the mammoth in Siberia, restoring the land to good health and perhaps saving the permafrost. Some would rather use what they learn from mammoth genes to alter the Asian elephant so it can live in the colder Siberian steppes since it is losing habitat.
Torill Kornfeldt goes from Siberia to the US to Europe and back to Siberia in her quest to understand the people working on resurrecting extinct species. There are several strategies employed, from trying to recreate the genetic map of the mammoth to trying to cross-breed several living species to create the characteristics of an extinct animal so this new critter could serve the same role in the environment.
There are good reasons to revive lost species or a simulacrum of them. For example, the loss of passenger pigeons may contribute to the massive wildfires in the West. The return of the mammoth could transform the landscape in ways that may save the permafrost and keep it from releasing the carbon and methane that would speed up climate change. Bringing back aurochs, or something like them could create a more diverse ecology in Europe.
I enjoyed The Re-Origin of Species very much. Kornfeldt has the good reporter’s ability to explain quickly and with clarity. She also paints the landscape with vivid imagery. She not only explores the various efforts of de-extinction, but also the conflicts, controversies, and ethical dilemmas. You can almost feel her wavering from one side to the other and she makes a good case for conservationists and de-extinctionists to talk more to each other.
I was fascinated by the idea that large herbivores like the auroch and the mammoth could change the environment in ways that would create a healthier, more diverse landscape. This book reminds us of what we have lost but gives us hope that something new may be found. I found myself thinking many of the ideas, some in conflict with each other, made a lot of sense. Kornfeldt even provides a handy list of pros and cons at the end.
One objection to de-extinction seemed very nonpersuasive to me. Susan Clayborn, a psychologist, thinks it would change our relationship with nature because we would feel less humbled by its vastness and variety. She fears that knowing we could bring back a species would reduce the beneficial effect people receive from spending time in nature. It’s as though she has never heard of dominion theology or seen mankind’s profligate assumption that nature is our servant, one we can exploit without regard for its well-being and health. We have erased many species from the face of the earth, I don’t think restoring a few of them will make us feel much differently.
This is a fascinating and timely book. We are already seeing the effects of climate change. The permafrost is melting. Who knew that we might find some way to mitigate that by looking to long-lost species.
I received a review copy of The Re-Origin of Species from the publisher.
The Re-Origin of Species: A Second Chance for Extinct Animals at Scribe Publications
Notes and further reading from the author
Torill Kornfeldt author site
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2018/12/12/9781947534360/
More...