CONTACT CAROLINE
facebook
rss
tumblr
twitter
goodreads
youtube

  • Home
  • Write Away Blog
  • Books
    • Books
    • Trompe l’Oeil
    • Heart Land
    • Gothic Spring
    • Ballet Noir
    • Book Excerpts
  • Video Interviews
  • Press
    • News
    • Print Interviews
    • Plays
    • Ballet Noir in the Press
    • Trompe l’Oeil In The Press
    • Gothic Spring In The Press
    • Heart Land Reviews
  • Contact
  • About
  • Resources
    • Writer Resources
    • Favorite Blogs
    • Favorite Artists



Dangerous Minds

Aug 23, 2013
by Caroline Miller
"Bringing extinct species back to life", "Jurassic Park", Carl Zimmer, Michael Chrichton, woolly mammoth
0 Comment

A new word has appeared in the English language which can’t be found in any of my dictionaries: de-extinction. It means to bring an extinct species back to life. The notion took fire in people’s imagination after Michael Crichton wrote his novel, Jurassic Park. In it, scientist use DNA to recreate the Mesozoic Age complete with dinosaurs.

De-extinction was first attempted in 1989 with the bucardo goat. Scientists brought a fetus of the extinct animal to term, but it died minutes after birth. (“Bringing extinct species back to life,” by Carl Zimmer of the National Geographic, reprinted in The Week, 8/2/13, pg. 40)  Since that time, advances in genetic research have increased the probability that de-extinction will one day be achieved. Some dream of reviving the Woolly Mammoth, a behemoth that roamed the earth around 10,000 B.C.

 Usually a species that old wouldn’t have enough viable DNA to make reconstruction possible. But, last summer researchers “found frozen chunks of mammoth tissue, including bone marrow, hair, skin and fat,” which may provide enough cells to coax an embryo into existence. (Ibid, pg 41.)

 The possibility of de-extinction raises a number of moral and environmental questions, not the least of which is the potential that a virus will re-emerge with the embryo which could wreak havoc upon a world with no natural defenses. Of course, one might even ask if the world really needs woolly mammoths or dodo birds, the great auk or the passenger pigeon.

For me, however, the biggest question is neither scientific nor ethical. If Michael Crichton can be credited with our dreams of de-extinction then what other imaginative worlds might flow from the minds of writers that can also alter our existence? The question is worth pondering As Plato implied, we artists might be dangerous people.

Wooly Mammoth

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Courtesy of lauriecaple.com)

 

Social Share

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

*
*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Contact Caroline at

carolinemiller11@yahoo.com

Portland, Oregon author Caroline Miller had distinguished careers as an educator, union president, elected official and artist/advocate.

Her play, Woman on the Scarlet Beast, was performed at the Post5 Theatre, Portland, OR, January/February 2015

Caroline published a serialized novelette, Marie Eau-Claire, on the website, The Colored Lens.  She also published the story Gustav Pavel,  a parable about ordinary lives, choice and alternate potential, on the website Fixional.co.

Caroline has published four novels

  • Ballet Noir
  • Trompe l’Oeil
  • Gothic Spring
  • Heart Land

Subscribe to Caroline’s Blog


 

Archives

Categories

YouTube-logo-inline2 To access and subscribe to my videos on YouTube, Click Here and click the Subscribe button.

Banner art “The Receptive” by Charlie White of Charlie White Studio

Web Admin: ThinPATH Systems, Inc
support@tp-sys.com

Subscribe to Caroline's Blog


 

Contact Caroline at

carolinemiller11@yahoo.com

Sitemap | Privacy Notice

AUDIO & VIDEO VAULT

View archives of Caroline’s audio and videos interviews.


Copyright © Books by Caroline Miller
Posting....