De-Extinction: Can Cloning Bring Extinct Species Back to Life?

[caption id="attachment_2548" align="alignright" width="300" caption="A museum specimen of an extinct passenger pigeon"] [/caption]At some point in the next decade, if advances in biotechnology continue on their current path, clones of extinct species such as the passenger pigeon, Tasmanian tiger and wooly mammoth could once again live among us. But cloning lost species--or "de-extinction" as some scientists call it--presents us with myriad ethical, legal and regulatory questions that must be answered, such as which (if any) species should be brought back and whether or not such creatures could be allowed to return to the wild. Such questions are set to be addressed March 15 at TEDx DeExtinction , a day-long event in Washington, D.C., organized by Stewart Brand's Revive & Restore project. Brand previewed the topics for discussion last week at the TED2013 conference in Long Beach, Calif. [More]