Transcript

Podcast produced and presented by Craig Barfoot

Cloning extinct species – such as woolly mammoths – presents massive ethical as well as practical challenges.  And at the moment there is no legal oversight of the issues.

Beth Shapiro, author of How to Clone a Mammoth explores the complexities – both ethical and scientific – in this interview with Craig Barfoot.

We may get excited by the idea of cloning dinosaurs (not possible as dinosaur DNA has long since turned to stone) or woolly mammoths (so far only 9 of the hundreds of genes needed have been identified), but why would we do it?  The ethics of creating a creature, only to put it on display in a zoo, are surely questionable.

And genes are only half the story. Environment is also a key part of species development – and we cannot re-create the environment (herd, terraine etc) of a mammoth.

This is a fascinating and eye-opening podcast.  Listen and share it.

Tags: Ancient DNA, Cloning, Extinct species, Genes, How to Clone a Mammoth, Scientific ethics