Interview: Is Cloning Mammoths Science Fiction or Conservation?

Biologist Beth Shapiro has published a new book, How to Clone a Mammoth, that looks at the many questions — both technical and ethical — surrounding any attempt to revive extinct species. In a Yale Environment 360 interview, Shapiro, associate director of the Paleogenomics Institute at the University of California at Santa Cruz, explains why she believes new gene-editing technology could benefit critical ecosystems and living species that are now endangered. “We are in the midst of an extinction crisis,” she says. “Why would we not use whatever technologies are available to us, assuming we can go about doing it in a reasonable and ethical way?”
Read the interview.