About this episode

The episode discusses the implications of synthetic biology for conservation, questioning its focus on de-extinction and its relevance to the natural world.

Synthetic biology, the engineering of life at the genetic level, is advancing at pace. Much of the public conversation fixates on de-extinction and charismatic creatures like woolly mammoths, dire wolves, and moas, but is that really what matters in this new world we are looking at? And while we debate whether these technologies should be applied to the natural world at all, massive investment in human medicine and agriculture is already releasing genetically modified organisms into open syst...

People in this episode

Guest: Kent Redford

Topics covered

• synthetic biology
• conservation
• genetic engineering
• de-extinction

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Synthetic biology, human medicine, agriculture

Books & works: woolly mammoths, dire wolves, moas

Places: natural world

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