WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.339 Okay, Chelsea, I have three different articles 00:00:02.339 --> 00:00:05.240 for you to choose from. Not all of them are necessarily 00:00:05.240 --> 00:00:08.140 Dooming Loom, so... Okay. How have you sorted 00:00:08.140 --> 00:00:10.419 them for me to choose? Well, I have three. I'm 00:00:10.419 --> 00:00:12.279 going to give you a vague idea of the topics. 00:00:12.580 --> 00:00:17.739 One is De -Extinction, one is Financial Times, 00:00:18.140 --> 00:00:21.980 and one is Astronomy. Well, I'm definitely not 00:00:21.980 --> 00:00:24.879 choosing anything financial. So let's go with 00:00:24.879 --> 00:00:28.629 De -Extinction. Did you hear about the dire wolf 00:00:28.629 --> 00:00:32.310 that was cloned recently? I did actually. Oh 00:00:32.310 --> 00:00:35.329 good. Because this is in line with it. Would 00:00:35.329 --> 00:00:39.380 you like me to tell you about it? This article 00:00:39.380 --> 00:00:41.960 is on that and kind of the things that weren't 00:00:41.960 --> 00:00:44.420 talked about when everything was pumped through 00:00:44.420 --> 00:00:47.780 the news system with it. So, this one comes from 00:00:47.780 --> 00:00:50.240 a site that we've used many a time, Live Live 00:00:50.240 --> 00:00:52.539 Science. We're never sure how to pronounce it. 00:00:52.659 --> 00:00:55.439 If only we were able to look into this at some 00:00:55.439 --> 00:01:00.039 time in our spare time, but we will not. This 00:01:00.039 --> 00:01:04.280 came out April 9th, 2025 by Sasha Pear. And it 00:01:04.280 --> 00:01:07.780 is titled, Colossal de -extincted direwolf isn't 00:01:07.780 --> 00:01:10.579 a direwolf and it has not been de -extincted, 00:01:10.840 --> 00:01:13.540 expert says. I love where this is going. In an 00:01:13.540 --> 00:01:15.939 announcement on Monday, April 7th, scientists 00:01:15.939 --> 00:01:17.719 revealed to the world that they have brought 00:01:17.719 --> 00:01:20.599 back long -extinct direwolves with genetic engineering. 00:01:21.079 --> 00:01:23.620 Researchers with biotechnology company Colossal 00:01:23.620 --> 00:01:26.900 Biosciences shared images of three adorable Snow 00:01:26.900 --> 00:01:29.599 White pups which they said marked the world's 00:01:29.599 --> 00:01:32.540 first de -extinction. I don't think that's necessarily 00:01:32.540 --> 00:01:34.799 true, but let's not get into this now. Okay, 00:01:34.980 --> 00:01:36.379 fair enough. Also, you're gonna think they're 00:01:36.379 --> 00:01:39.079 claiming that. Dire Wolves, which were made famous 00:01:39.079 --> 00:01:42.140 by HBO's television series Game of Thrones, went 00:01:42.140 --> 00:01:44.920 extinct at the time of the last Ice Age. By creating 00:01:44.920 --> 00:01:48.099 Lookalike Pops, Colossal CEO Ben Lam said that 00:01:48.099 --> 00:01:50.159 the company has, quote, made healthy dire wolf 00:01:50.159 --> 00:01:53.159 puppies, end quote, and resurrected these predators 00:01:53.159 --> 00:01:55.819 after more than 10 ,000 years of de -extinction. 00:01:56.200 --> 00:01:58.760 But many experts say the language used by Colossal 00:01:58.760 --> 00:02:01.000 to describe these creations is misleading, quote, 00:02:01.140 --> 00:02:04.299 what Colossal have produced is a gray wolf with 00:02:04.299 --> 00:02:07.560 dire wolf -like characteristics, end quote. Nick 00:02:07.560 --> 00:02:09.939 Rollins, an associate professor and co -director 00:02:09.939 --> 00:02:13.659 of the Otago Paleogenetics Laboratory at the 00:02:13.550 --> 00:02:16.310 University of Otago told the New Zealand Science 00:02:16.310 --> 00:02:19.009 Media Center quote this is not a de -extincted 00:02:19.009 --> 00:02:21.689 direwolf rather it's a hybrid end quote to make 00:02:21.689 --> 00:02:25.310 the pup scientists extracted DNA from two prehistoric 00:02:25.310 --> 00:02:28.330 direwolf fossils a 13 ,000 year old tooth discovered 00:02:28.330 --> 00:02:32.229 in Sheridan pit Ohio and a 72 ,000 year old ear 00:02:32.229 --> 00:02:35.169 bone from American Falls in Idaho Using this 00:02:35.169 --> 00:02:37.830 DNA, the researchers pieced together a partial 00:02:37.830 --> 00:02:40.830 direwolf genome, which they then compared with 00:02:40.830 --> 00:02:42.750 the genomes of the direwolf's closest living 00:02:42.750 --> 00:02:46.069 relatives including wolves, jackals, and foxes. 00:02:46.110 --> 00:02:48.330 Based on their results, the scientists selected 00:02:48.330 --> 00:02:51.629 the gray wolf as an egg donor to quote bring 00:02:51.629 --> 00:02:55.069 back end quote direwolves. Despite the two species 00:02:55.069 --> 00:02:57.729 not actually being that closely related, experts 00:02:57.729 --> 00:03:00.719 said. Quote, new information shows that the original 00:03:00.719 --> 00:03:03.319 direwolf itself was not really a wolf, end quote. 00:03:03.539 --> 00:03:06.139 David Mack, an adjunct professor specializing 00:03:06.139 --> 00:03:08.520 in wolf ecology and behavior at the University 00:03:08.520 --> 00:03:10.740 of Minnesota and senior research scientist with 00:03:10.740 --> 00:03:13.500 the U .S. Geological Survey, I guess that probably 00:03:13.500 --> 00:03:15.039 should say former at this point because he's 00:03:15.039 --> 00:03:17.199 probably been fired from that, told Live Science 00:03:17.199 --> 00:03:20.280 in an email. Evolutionarily speaking, direwolves 00:03:20.280 --> 00:03:23.240 split from wolves roughly six million years ago, 00:03:23.360 --> 00:03:25.800 forming an entirely separate group from modern 00:03:25.800 --> 00:03:29.180 -day gray wolves. Quote, Dire wolves are in their 00:03:29.180 --> 00:03:32.740 own genus, so a very different species." Philip 00:03:32.740 --> 00:03:35.780 Sedon, a professor of zoology at the University 00:03:35.780 --> 00:03:38.719 of Otago, told New Zealand Science Media Centre. 00:03:38.960 --> 00:03:41.560 Quote, the average acol might be more closely 00:03:41.560 --> 00:03:44.439 related to dire wolves, end quote. De -extinction 00:03:44.439 --> 00:03:46.939 requires egg cells from a living animal to hold 00:03:46.939 --> 00:03:49.659 and grow the genetic material of the animal scientists 00:03:49.659 --> 00:03:51.800 want to create. Having selected grey wolves to 00:03:51.800 --> 00:03:54.259 perform this step, colossal scientists then collected 00:03:54.259 --> 00:03:56.659 cells from grey wolf blood samples and modified 00:03:56.659 --> 00:03:59.360 them to resemble the cells found in dire wolf 00:03:59.360 --> 00:04:02.439 fossils. Using CRISPR gene editing technology, 00:04:02.599 --> 00:04:05.360 the team made a total of 20 edits in 14 genes 00:04:05.360 --> 00:04:07.699 that they identified as important in giving dire 00:04:07.699 --> 00:04:11.099 wolves their traits. Next, in a similar process 00:04:11.099 --> 00:04:14.099 as the one used to clone Dolly the Sheep in 1996, 00:04:14.599 --> 00:04:16.779 the scientists inserted the modified cell's DNA 00:04:16.779 --> 00:04:19.300 into a grey wolf's egg cells, whose own genetic 00:04:19.300 --> 00:04:21.600 material had previously been removed. At this 00:04:21.600 --> 00:04:23.740 point, the grey wolf egg cells contained all 00:04:23.740 --> 00:04:25.500 the genetic information required to build the 00:04:25.500 --> 00:04:27.240 wolves with some of the defining characteristics 00:04:27.240 --> 00:04:29.819 of dire wolves. The egg cells were then left 00:04:29.819 --> 00:04:32.079 to mature in the lab, and the resulting embryos 00:04:32.079 --> 00:04:34.300 were implanted into the wombs of domestic dogs, 00:04:34.560 --> 00:04:36.660 which are technically a subspecies of the grey 00:04:36.660 --> 00:04:39.970 wolf. Colossal's first direwolf puppies, and 00:04:39.970 --> 00:04:42.870 direwolf is in quotations, Romulus and Remus 00:04:42.870 --> 00:04:45.269 were born October 1st, 2024, meaning they are 00:04:45.269 --> 00:04:48.149 now 5 months old adolescents. According to Colossal, 00:04:48.230 --> 00:04:50.089 they are being held and continually monitored 00:04:50.089 --> 00:04:52.709 in a nature preserve surrounded by 10 foot tall 00:04:52.709 --> 00:04:54.709 fencing. That doesn't really sound like a nature 00:04:54.709 --> 00:04:58.319 reserve. They will live out their life in a luxurious 00:04:58.319 --> 00:05:01.620 preserve under human care." Bridget Von Holt, 00:05:01.740 --> 00:05:04.800 a professor of evolutionary genomics and epigenetics 00:05:04.800 --> 00:05:06.920 at Princeton University, who collaborates with 00:05:06.920 --> 00:05:08.959 Colossal on the project, told LiveScience in 00:05:08.959 --> 00:05:15.089 an email, Their health always remains unpredictable 00:05:15.089 --> 00:05:19.149 and of potential concern." A third pup, Khaleesi, 00:05:19.230 --> 00:05:22.050 was born on January 30th, 2025. It's unclear 00:05:22.050 --> 00:05:24.449 how dangerous these animals are, but their behavior 00:05:24.449 --> 00:05:26.329 is unlikely to differ dramatically from that 00:05:26.329 --> 00:05:28.709 of a captive gray wolf. Especially as they have 00:05:28.709 --> 00:05:30.850 been constantly surrounded by humans, von Holt 00:05:30.850 --> 00:05:45.389 said. Romulus, Remus, and Khaleesi will not be 00:05:45.389 --> 00:05:47.449 released into the wild, but in the future Colossal 00:05:47.449 --> 00:05:49.790 said it will consider options to introduce animals 00:05:49.790 --> 00:05:52.670 into, quote, secure and expansive ecological 00:05:52.670 --> 00:05:55.290 preserves potentially on indigenous land, end 00:05:55.290 --> 00:05:57.610 quote. But some experts doubt very much that 00:05:57.610 --> 00:05:59.509 these introductions would be successful, quote, 00:05:59.949 --> 00:06:01.670 any release of the wild would be fraught with 00:06:01.670 --> 00:06:04.569 negative PR and legal consequences, which would 00:06:04.569 --> 00:06:07.250 probably also be the case with any of the other 00:06:07.250 --> 00:06:09.649 types of newly created animals, end quote, Mech 00:06:09.649 --> 00:06:12.519 said. Regarding the direwolf specifically, Mack 00:06:12.519 --> 00:06:14.860 said there is a question mark over how they might 00:06:14.860 --> 00:06:17.399 fit into modern ecosystems. Quote, they occupied 00:06:17.399 --> 00:06:19.920 an entirely different ecological niche than exists 00:06:19.920 --> 00:06:22.839 today, end quote he said. Many experts have criticized 00:06:22.839 --> 00:06:25.660 Colossal's announcement, but some have also praised 00:06:25.660 --> 00:06:28.000 the technological breakthroughs the company made 00:06:28.000 --> 00:06:30.500 along the way. Quote, certainly this involves 00:06:30.500 --> 00:06:33.339 advances in genetics technology, and these might 00:06:33.339 --> 00:06:36.000 have applications for the conservation of existing 00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:38.800 species, end quote said and said. One species 00:06:38.800 --> 00:06:40.860 that is already benefiting from the Colossal's 00:06:40.860 --> 00:06:43.899 breakthrough is the Red Wolf, the world's most 00:06:43.899 --> 00:06:45.959 endangered wolf. The company announced the birth 00:06:45.959 --> 00:06:47.980 of two litters of cloned Red Wolves on Monday, 00:06:48.100 --> 00:06:50.180 boosting the number of Red Wolves held in captivity 00:06:50.180 --> 00:06:52.560 in the US and offering new hope to the species. 00:06:52.920 --> 00:06:55.160 But at the end of the day, Colossal's claim that 00:06:55.160 --> 00:06:57.660 it has resurrected the direwolf is spurious. 00:06:58.160 --> 00:07:00.339 Seddon and others have said, quote, Colossal 00:07:00.339 --> 00:07:02.379 compared the genomes of the direwolf and the 00:07:02.379 --> 00:07:05.000 gray wolf, and from about 19 ,000 genes, they 00:07:05.000 --> 00:07:08.319 determined that 20 changes and 14 genes gave 00:07:08.319 --> 00:07:11.779 them a direwolf, end quote Roland said. Moreover, 00:07:12.019 --> 00:07:15.220 Colossal's quote direwolves unquote. Aren't technically 00:07:15.220 --> 00:07:17.399 the world's first the extinction? Oh good, they 00:07:17.399 --> 00:07:20.139 answered that. In 2003, scientists in Spain cloned 00:07:20.139 --> 00:07:22.819 an extinct wild goat species known as the Picardo 00:07:22.819 --> 00:07:26.579 or the Pyrenean Ibix. A baby goat was born, but 00:07:26.579 --> 00:07:28.759 it died seven minutes later due to a lung defect. 00:07:29.019 --> 00:07:31.300 The announcement on Monday means that quote, 00:07:31.459 --> 00:07:34.339 we have GMO wolves and might one day have GMO 00:07:34.339 --> 00:07:36.899 Asian elephants. But for now, extinction really 00:07:36.899 --> 00:07:39.399 is forever. End quote, sad and sad. That's the 00:07:39.399 --> 00:07:40.639 end of the quote. That's the end of the article. 00:07:40.680 --> 00:07:43.060 Can I share my screen with you? Yeah, go ahead. 00:07:43.339 --> 00:07:46.379 I got to thinking while you were speaking. Oh, 00:07:46.459 --> 00:07:48.980 they got the puppies up there. Yeah. Oh, those 00:07:48.980 --> 00:07:50.860 aren't puppy. Those are full groans. This is 00:07:50.860 --> 00:07:53.360 like some crazy Jurassic Park. First of all, 00:07:53.540 --> 00:07:56.579 this is the most fancy website I've ever been 00:07:56.579 --> 00:07:59.079 on. It does really look like an advertisement 00:07:59.079 --> 00:08:01.819 for like Pacific Northwest Park or something 00:08:01.819 --> 00:08:05.680 like that. It is crazy. Okay, I just was taking 00:08:05.680 --> 00:08:08.540 a look through this website while you were talking 00:08:08.540 --> 00:08:13.120 and... It is I just have to go through it. Look 00:08:13.120 --> 00:08:16.000 at this I'm on I'm showing Taylor the colossal 00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:18.660 comm website actually and I'm on the heading 00:08:18.660 --> 00:08:21.980 for D extinction There's a few things that I 00:08:21.980 --> 00:08:24.899 wanted to point out to you on here because this 00:08:24.899 --> 00:08:27.180 is I mean I'm surprised that I don't see any 00:08:27.180 --> 00:08:30.220 t -rexes or Raptors on here. Look at this rebuilding 00:08:30.220 --> 00:08:34.460 extinct species for existence today Oh good. 00:08:34.659 --> 00:08:37.519 Yeah, just wait. Oh, they got some holy mammoths 00:08:37.690 --> 00:08:43.389 Wow. This is fully just PR. It is. And I'm not 00:08:43.389 --> 00:08:48.179 seeing any mention of meatballs at all. by the 00:08:48.179 --> 00:08:50.360 way oh you got to get to the food cart part of 00:08:50.360 --> 00:08:52.740 this yeah because jurassic park had a food court 00:08:52.740 --> 00:08:57.340 so down here when i scroll on see we're right 00:08:57.340 --> 00:09:00.620 here we're in the human causation section yeah 00:09:00.620 --> 00:09:04.700 there's one where we can go to all the species 00:09:04.700 --> 00:09:07.159 that are about to go extinct that they would 00:09:07.159 --> 00:09:10.639 like to eventually replace here we're in the 00:09:10.639 --> 00:09:13.950 extinction stats Anyhow, I think I lost it, but 00:09:13.950 --> 00:09:15.929 I just wanted to show you how beautiful this 00:09:15.929 --> 00:09:19.230 website was, first of all. Oh, right here! That 00:09:19.230 --> 00:09:22.269 is... Endangered Animal Backup. Oh, good. That 00:09:22.269 --> 00:09:24.529 doesn't sound like one of the problems we talked 00:09:24.529 --> 00:09:28.029 about with the extinction. Nope. It seems like... 00:09:28.029 --> 00:09:31.269 Is that Kathy Bates? It does look a lot like 00:09:31.269 --> 00:09:36.169 short -haired Kathy Bates. That was just a lot 00:09:36.169 --> 00:09:38.789 of you listening to us scroll through a website. 00:09:39.250 --> 00:09:41.590 You couldn't even hear the scrolling. Poor guys. 00:09:42.070 --> 00:09:44.230 I just really want to emphasize that this website 00:09:44.230 --> 00:09:46.970 really seems to downplay the fact that we talked 00:09:46.970 --> 00:09:48.549 about in the extinction episode. If you want 00:09:48.549 --> 00:09:50.750 to go learn more about it, go listen to it. But 00:09:50.750 --> 00:09:53.289 basically, if we think we can clone or bring 00:09:53.289 --> 00:09:55.769 a species back from extinction or not have to 00:09:55.769 --> 00:09:57.309 worry about an endangered species because we 00:09:57.309 --> 00:09:59.929 can clone them, it takes away the impact of people 00:09:59.929 --> 00:10:03.259 having to worry about other species. huge impact 00:10:03.259 --> 00:10:05.600 because we can just clone them back and that 00:10:05.600 --> 00:10:07.899 website worried me a lot with how they're just 00:10:07.899 --> 00:10:10.039 kind of downplaying that or at least using it 00:10:10.039 --> 00:10:12.700 for advertising yeah it's like don't worry science 00:10:12.700 --> 00:10:16.279 but the other worrisome thing like how about 00:10:16.279 --> 00:10:19.200 like reintroducing these kinds of things back 00:10:19.200 --> 00:10:22.679 into our environment because nature like evens 00:10:22.679 --> 00:10:25.620 itself out and then you're just like dire wolves 00:10:25.620 --> 00:10:28.419 yeah and I just because I found this article 00:10:28.419 --> 00:10:30.580 on reddit I was reading through it it's not on 00:10:30.580 --> 00:10:32.480 this but it's on another one the Dire Wolves 00:10:32.480 --> 00:10:35.059 post found a really good comment from somebody 00:10:35.059 --> 00:10:39.100 named Saint Ulvaman was posted 23 days ago which 00:10:39.100 --> 00:10:41.399 would be April 7th from when we're recording 00:10:41.399 --> 00:10:44.720 and they said I'm a geneticist myself though 00:10:44.720 --> 00:10:46.879 I have different specialty I've never done any 00:10:46.879 --> 00:10:48.980 work like this but I'm paid to know a lot about 00:10:48.980 --> 00:10:52.279 this one thing they don't seem to have done anything 00:10:52.279 --> 00:10:55.019 specific to account for is that Dire Wolves weren't 00:10:55.019 --> 00:10:57.379 wolves they were about as separate from wolves 00:10:57.379 --> 00:11:00.700 as chimpanzees are from humans jackals and african 00:11:00.700 --> 00:11:02.820 wild dogs are more closely related to wolves 00:11:02.820 --> 00:11:05.340 than dire wolves that makes sense it's just like 00:11:05.340 --> 00:11:08.480 a mammoth like you can't recreate a mammoth in 00:11:08.480 --> 00:11:12.830 itself no exactly so there were definitely more 00:11:12.830 --> 00:11:15.750 than 20 differences between what they actually 00:11:15.750 --> 00:11:18.070 sampled in the wolf genome they used. Change 00:11:18.070 --> 00:11:21.289 20 genes in a human and you might get something 00:11:21.289 --> 00:11:23.789 that looks like a chimpanzee if you've done a 00:11:23.789 --> 00:11:25.889 really good job of picking the right 20 genes. 00:11:26.129 --> 00:11:28.750 But you're still going to get something that 00:11:28.750 --> 00:11:31.730 is very genetically different from a chimpanzee 00:11:31.730 --> 00:11:33.909 because you started from a human and most of 00:11:33.909 --> 00:11:37.269 its genes were human. The same applies here. 00:11:37.509 --> 00:11:40.289 So although this is very interesting work, that 00:11:40.289 --> 00:11:43.009 helps us observe the effect of old genes from 00:11:43.009 --> 00:11:45.649 a popular understanding, it's really important 00:11:45.649 --> 00:11:48.750 to note that these are actually not real dire 00:11:48.750 --> 00:11:51.049 wolves yet. Their wolveshoof's genes have been 00:11:51.049 --> 00:11:53.750 edited to be a bit more like dire wolves. But 00:11:53.750 --> 00:11:56.190 that's scary though, isn't it? That feels like 00:11:56.190 --> 00:11:59.450 a horror movie starting. It's like weird. It 00:11:59.450 --> 00:12:02.610 really does. Yeah, and it could go horribly wrong. 00:12:02.759 --> 00:12:04.840 Well, the fact that they even say these will 00:12:04.840 --> 00:12:06.960 never be released into the wild because they 00:12:06.960 --> 00:12:10.240 don't really know how loaning will impact anything 00:12:10.240 --> 00:12:12.779 when they do it because it can just go so horribly 00:12:12.779 --> 00:12:16.559 wrong and I misspoke it's not like the mammoth 00:12:16.559 --> 00:12:19.200 at all because they had mammoth DNA to create 00:12:19.200 --> 00:12:22.539 those meatballs and What they're doing with the 00:12:22.539 --> 00:12:25.039 entire wolf is they they're trying to recreate 00:12:25.039 --> 00:12:28.299 its DNA They don't have any actual DNA from it. 00:12:28.379 --> 00:12:32.159 No, they did have DNA two samples Yeah, and then 00:12:32.159 --> 00:12:34.539 they cloned it through the genetics of a wolf. 00:12:34.620 --> 00:12:37.779 So where's the company with the direwolf meatball? 00:12:37.840 --> 00:12:40.840 That is a great question, but there's no evidence 00:12:40.840 --> 00:12:42.620 that a direwolf's gonna be more delicious than 00:12:42.620 --> 00:12:44.980 a wolf, and we don't make wolf meatballs. You 00:12:44.980 --> 00:12:48.460 know, I don't eat meat, but I would fully imagine 00:12:48.460 --> 00:12:51.519 that a wooly mammoth meatball would be way better 00:12:51.519 --> 00:12:53.200 than a direwolf. It's gotta be worth it. I mean, 00:12:53.299 --> 00:12:56.100 who's trying it, though? No one, so... Great 00:12:56.100 --> 00:12:59.320 question. I know. I'm full of them. But yeah, 00:12:59.500 --> 00:13:01.899 I mean, you guys got 48 hours now. Go explore 00:13:01.899 --> 00:13:06.039 that website. See how our major issues that we've 00:13:06.039 --> 00:13:08.440 caused this planet have no impact on the future 00:13:08.440 --> 00:13:10.039 because we can just bring everything back. Don't 00:13:10.039 --> 00:13:11.440 let them rope you in. Bye.