The Re-Origin of Species: a second chance for extinct animals

The Re-Origin of Species: a second chance for extinct animals

by Fiona Graham (Translator), Fiona Graham (Translator), Torill Kornfeldt (Author)

Synopsis

What does a mammoth smell like? Do dinosaurs bob their heads as they walk, like today's birds? Do aurochs moo like cows? You may soon find out.

From the Siberian permafrost to balmy California, scientists across the globe are working to resurrect all kinds of extinct animals, from ones that just left us to those that have been gone for many thousands of years. Their tools in this hunt are both fossils and cutting-edge genetic technologies. Some of these scientists are driven by sheer curiosity; others view the lost species as a powerful weapon in the fight to save rapidly disappearing ecosystems.

Science journalist Torill Kornfeldt travelled the world to meet the men and women working to bring extinct animals back from the dead. Along the way, she saw a mammoth that has been frozen for 20,000 years, and visited the places where these furry giants once walked. It seems certain that they and other lost species will walk the earth again, but what world will that give us? And is any of this a good idea?

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 256
Publisher: Scribe UK
Published: 12 Jul 2018

ISBN 10: 1911617222
ISBN 13: 9781911617228

Media Reviews

`Pick up this book and you'll be glued to its pages, and soon convinced that bioengineering will continue to change the world in ways difficult to imagine.'

* Good Reading, 4.5 Stars *

`Reading The Re-Origin of Species was a delightful adventure. Torill Kornfeldt took me by the hand and led me all around the world, and back through history, teaching me about how extinction works and how the restoration of all kinds of species, from the woolly mammoth to feathered dinosaurs, just may be a part of our future.'

-- Tim Urban, Wait But Why?

`[T]his excellent book, written with a deceptively light touch (in Fiona Graham's translation) ... raises a number of deep questions and paradoxes about our relationship with nature.'

* The Guardian *

`[E]xpresses the full complexity of this topic in a lighthearted, masterful way, raising critical questions ... which guide the reader to develop informed opinions about how humankind can limit the ongoing destruction of nature.'

* Adelaide Advertiser *

`The author's careful synthesis of accomplishment versus aspiration is also spot-on-even world-class scientists will be dreamers, and there is much more research to be conducted before mammoths once again lumber across the tundra. Wondrous tales of futuristic science experiments that happen to be true.'

* Kirkus Reviews *

`Any number of terms apply to Torill Kornfeldt's fascinating overview of this profoundly important subject: clear-eyed. Skeptical. Open-minded. But the word that sticks with me is one I haven't had cause to use in a very long time: hopeful. The Re-Origin of Species gives me hope.'

-- Peter Watts, author of Blindsight and Starfish
Author Bio
Torill Kornfeldt is a Swedish science journalist with a background in biology. She has worked for Sweden's leading newspaper Dagens Nyheter and for Swedish public radio. Fiona Graham has a degree in Modern Languages from Oxford University, and has lived in Kenya, Germany, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Nicaragua, and Belgium. She translates from Spanish, French, Dutch, Swedish, and German, and is currently the reviews editor at the Swedish Book Review.