Is Colossal Biosciences the Real-Life Jurassic Park?
While the premise might sound like a Spielberg pitch, the reality of Colossal Biosciences is entirely different. The crucial divergence lies in the "why." InGen built a theme park for profit and spectacle, with a famously cavalier attitude towards consequences. Colossal, however, frames its mission firmly within conservation and ecosystem restoration. Their goal isn't petting zoos filled with mammoths but reintroducing functionally equivalent animals to help repair damaged environments, like the Arctic tundra.
The "how" of it is also vastly different. Jurassic Park relied on extracting complete dinosaur DNA from mosquitoes in ambera creative concept, but with significant scientific hurdles due to DNA degradation over millions of years. Colossal's approach involves using sophisticated gene-editing technology (like CRISPR) to introduce key traits of extinct animals into the genomes of their closest living relatives (for the mammoth, that's the Asian elephant). And then there are the animals themselves. While dinosaurs are undeniably awe-inspiring, Colossal focuses on species that disappeared much more recently, often due to human impact, and importantly, played vital roles in their ecosystems. Bringing back a mammoth isn't just a cool trick; it's theorized to help restore the Arctic grasslands and combat permafrost melt.
Ultimately, while the ghost of Jurassic Park might linger in the public imagination whenever the topic of de-extinction is mentioned, Colossal Biosciences operates with a different purpose, a different scientific method, and a commitment to ethical considerations and transparency—a far cry from the profit-driven science run amok depicted on Isla Nublar. It taps into that same deep human fascination with lost worlds, but with its science fixed firmly on the future health of our planet.
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Int'l Business Times
22-07-2025
- Int'l Business Times
The Eye-opening Science Of Close Encounters With Polar Bears
It's a pretty risky business trying to take a blood sample from a polar bear -- one of the most dangerous predators on the planet -- on an Arctic ice floe. First you have to find it and then shoot it with a sedative dart from a helicopter before a vet dares approach on foot to put a GPS collar around its neck. Then the blood has to be taken and a delicate incision made into a layer of fat before it wakes. All this with a wind chill of up to minus 30C. For the last four decades experts from the Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI) have been keeping tabs on the health and movement of polar bears in the Svalbard archipelago, halfway between Norway and the North Pole. Like the rest of the Arctic, global warming has been happening there three to four times faster than elsewhere. But this year the eight scientists working from the Norwegian icebreaker Kronprins Haakon are experimenting with new methods to monitor the world's largest land carnivore, including for the first time tracking the PFAS "forever chemicals" from the other ends of the Earth that finish up in their bodies. An AFP photographer joined them on this year's eye-opening expedition. With one foot on the helicopter's landing skid, vet Rolf Arne Olberg put his rifle to his shoulder as a polar bear ran as the aircraft approached. Hit by the dart, the animal slumped gently on its side into a snowdrift, with Olberg checking with his binoculars to make sure he had hit a muscle. If not, the bear could wake prematurely. "We fly in quickly," Oldberg said, and "try to minimise the time we come in close to the bear... so we chase it as little as possible." After a five- to 10-minute wait to make sure it is asleep, the team of scientists land and work quickly and precisely. They place a GPS collar around the bear's neck and replace the battery if the animal already has one. Only females are tracked with the collars because male polar bears -- who can grow to 2.6 metres (8.5 feet) -- have necks thicker than their heads, and would shake the collar straight off. Olberg then made a precise cut in the bear's skin to insert a heart monitor between a layer of fat and the flesh. "It allows us to record the bear's body temperature and heart rate all year," NPI researcher Marie-Anne Blanchet told AFP, "to see the energy the female bears (wearing the GPS) need to use up as their environment changes." The first five were fitted last year, which means that for the first time experts can cross-reference their data to find out when and how far the bears have to walk and swim to reach their hunting grounds and how long they rest in their lairs. The vet also takes a biopsy of a sliver of fat that allows researchers to test how the animal might stand up to stress and "forever chemicals", the main pollutants found in their bodies. "The idea is to best represent what bears experience in the wild but in a laboratory," said Belgian toxicologist Laura Pirard, who is testing the biopsy method on the mammals. It has already shown that the diet of Svalbard's 300 or so bears is changing as the polar ice retreats. The first is that they are eating less seals and more food from the land, said Jon Aars, the lead scientist of the NPI's polar bear programme. "They still hunt seals, but they also take eggs and reindeer -- they even eat (sea)grass and things like that, even though it provides them with no energy." But seals remain their essential food source, he said. "Even if they only have three months to hunt, they can obtain about 70 percent of what they need for the entire year during that period. That's probably why we see they are doing okay and are in good condition" despite the huge melting of the ice. But if warming reduces their seal hunting further, "perhaps they will struggle", he warned. "There are notable changes in their behaviour... but they are doing better than we feared. However, there is a limit, and the future may not be as bright." "The bears have another advantage," said Blanchet, "they live for a long time, learning from experience all their life. That gives a certain capacity to adapt." Another encouraging discovery has been the tentative sign of a fall in pollution levels. With some "bears that we have recaptured sometimes six or eight times over the years, we have observed a decrease in pollutant levels," said Finnish ecotoxicologist Heli Routti, who has been working on the programme for 15 years. "This reflects the success of regulations over the past decades." NPI's experts contribute to the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) whose conclusions play a role in framing regulations or bans on pollutants. "The concentration of many pollutants that have been regulated decreased over the past 40 years in Arctic waters," Routti said. "But the variety of pollutants has increased. We are now observing more types of chemical substances" in the bears' blood and fatty tissues. These nearly indestructible PFAS or "forever chemicals" used in countless products like cosmetics and nonstick pans accumulate in the air, soil, water and food. Experts warn that they ultimately end up in the human body, particularly in the blood and tissues of the kidney or liver, raising concerns over toxic effects and links to cancer. Belgian toxicologist Laura Pirard with samples of fat taken from polar bears and tested using the new 'slice' method AFP French scientist Marie-Anne Blanchet examines bear cubs on the ice before taking biopsies and blood samples from their sedated mother AFP Infographic with a map showing the route of a polar bear following the sea ice, where seals are more frequently found, in Svalbard (Arctic) from April 2024 to April 2025, according to GPS data provided by the Norvegian Polar Institute AFP Polar bears are changing their diet and travelling further to eat AFP The Kronprins Haakon icebreaker carrying the scientists near Spitzbergen and its glaciers AFP A male polar bear attacks a walrus on the sea ice near Spitzbergen AFP Global warming has been happening in the Arctic three to four times faster than elsewhere AFP Only females are tracked with the collars AFP Expedition head Jon Aars changes the GPS collar of a female polar bear off Spitzbergen AFP Scientists carefully approach the sedated bear AFP The hangar of the Kronprins Haakon icebreaker off the Svalbard archipelago, halfway between Norway and the North Pole AFP
DW
10-07-2025
- DW
A political 'Superman'? The superhero as a 'moral immigrant' – DW – 07/10/2025
"Superman" filmmaker James Gunn says his movie is political since it's about the "lost" US value of basic human kindness. Who finds this offensive? In the highly anticipated new "Superman," which stars David Corenswet in the title role, the Man of Steel first appears lying bloodied and bruised in an Arctic wasteland. "We do have a battered Superman in the beginning. That is our country," director James Gunn said at a press event following the release of the film's first trailer. This Superman symbolizes an America that's in a beat-up state yet still stands for goodness, Gunn explained. Superman has often been considered the archetypal US superhero, embodying ideals of truth and justice, as well as the American dream. However, in the new film, Gunn decided to focus on "universal morality" instead of American exceptionalism. Instead of being a national hero, Superman aims to protect and save the weak around the world. "Even if it gets him into trouble," noted the director. "Yes, it's about politics," Gunn told British daily beforeadding that it's also "about human kindness." "Obviously there will be jerks out there who are just not kind and will take it as offensive just because it is about of kindness," he said. "But screw them." Those comments had right-wing commentators worrying that Gunn, who also directed "Guardians of the Galaxy," had turned the iconic superhero into a "woke" figure. They are calling for a boycott of the film, which hits theaters on July 11. Similarly, Fox News anchor Kellyanne Conway said on the talk show "The Five": "We don't go to the movie theater to be lectured to and to have somebody throw their ideology onto us. I wonder if it will be successful." Blockbuster superhero films typically avoid openly showcasing anything that would brand them as conservative or liberal. But one popular theory among superhero fans is that the film universes of the two largest North American comics publishers, DC and Marvel Comics, are polarized along the ideological fault lines that define an era of culture war. The DC universe — which includes Superman and Batman — has been described as more conservative-authoritarian, with its superheroes portrayed as the ultimate protectors of order. As extensions of the law, they act above the people and without accountability. "There's no sense of any democratic participation in the Batman world," points out film critic A.O. Scott in the 2025 podcast "X Man: The Elon Musk Origin Story." Meanwhile, the same podcast exposes the film critic's theory that heroes "from the Marvel Universe films — Iron Man, Captain America, Ant Man, the Avengers — are a team of do-gooders: These films represent an Obama-Biden view of the world." As the writer and director the "Guardian of the Galaxy" films, James Gunn used to belong to team Marvel. He also made enemies in the MAGA camp as an outspoken Donald Trump critic. Back in 2017, he shared his views in various tweets: "In my years on social networking I have never spoken out politically," Gunn tweeted. "But we're in a national crisis with an incompetent President forging a full-blown attack on facts and journalism in the style of Hitler and Putin." The alt-right news site then dug up offensive tweets Gunn had posted nearly a decade earlier. Social media users called on Disney, which own Marvel, to drop the filmmaker. Gunn was removed from the third "Guardians of the Galaxy" film, but was later reinstated after a public apology and talks with Disney studio heads. But he moved on to the other comics' camp, becoming the co-chairman of DC Studios in 2022. Gunn is head creator of the DC Universe that was rebooted in 2024 with a slate of new films including "Superman." Nevertheless, Superman's origin story was not written by Gunn to provoke "anti-woke" movie-goers, but rather by second-generation Jewish immigrants, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, who created a superhero that defended the weak in reaction to the rise of Hitler and antisemitism in Europe. Superman first appeared in #1, published in 1938. Born Kal-El on the planet of Krypton, Baby Superman's biological parents manage to send him off to Earth before they die in the destruction of their planet. The family who take on the orphan then fraudulently claim him as their biological son, Clark Kent, to cover up the fact that the child is literally an undocumented alien — a term that is otherwise seen as degrading for migrants. This aspect of the superhero's biography was reiterated in 2018 when the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees published the book, "Superman was a refugee too." A year earlier, Superman protected a group of undocumented immigrants from an armed white supremacist in issue #987 of — which came out shortly after Trump had announced the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy would be ending. The program allowed hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the US as children to live and work without fear of deportation. The government use of the term "alien," which had been banned under the Biden administration, was reinstated at the beginning of 2025. The current Trump administration is also ramping up its crackdown on immigration — raising alarm over state of US democracy and dividing people in the country.
Int'l Business Times
01-06-2025
- Int'l Business Times
Is Colossal Biosciences the Real-Life Jurassic Park?
Let's be honest. When you hear about a company actively working to bring back extinct animals using genetic science, your mind probably jumps to one place: Jurassic Park. The iconic gates, the majestic (and terrifying) dinosaurs, and the tagline that promised a walk with prehistory are permanently etched in our cultural DNA. And yes, on the surface, the celebrity loved Colossal Biosciences, with its sights set on the Woolly Mammoth, Tasmanian Tiger, and Dodo, shares that initial, breathtaking "wow" factor. As they did with the announcements of their Woolly Mouse and Dire Wolf, which dominated global headlines. They are, in essence, making the impossible possible, leveraging incredible scientific advancements to resurrect creatures lost to time. That shared ambition, the audacious reach into the past, is where the most compelling comparison begins and ends. While the premise might sound like a Spielberg pitch, the reality of Colossal Biosciences is entirely different. The crucial divergence lies in the "why." InGen built a theme park for profit and spectacle, with a famously cavalier attitude towards consequences. Colossal, however, frames its mission firmly within conservation and ecosystem restoration. Their goal isn't petting zoos filled with mammoths but reintroducing functionally equivalent animals to help repair damaged environments, like the Arctic tundra. The "how" of it is also vastly different. Jurassic Park relied on extracting complete dinosaur DNA from mosquitoes in ambera creative concept, but with significant scientific hurdles due to DNA degradation over millions of years. Colossal's approach involves using sophisticated gene-editing technology (like CRISPR) to introduce key traits of extinct animals into the genomes of their closest living relatives (for the mammoth, that's the Asian elephant). And then there are the animals themselves. While dinosaurs are undeniably awe-inspiring, Colossal focuses on species that disappeared much more recently, often due to human impact, and importantly, played vital roles in their ecosystems. Bringing back a mammoth isn't just a cool trick; it's theorized to help restore the Arctic grasslands and combat permafrost melt. Ultimately, while the ghost of Jurassic Park might linger in the public imagination whenever the topic of de-extinction is mentioned, Colossal Biosciences operates with a different purpose, a different scientific method, and a commitment to ethical considerations and transparency—a far cry from the profit-driven science run amok depicted on Isla Nublar. It taps into that same deep human fascination with lost worlds, but with its science fixed firmly on the future health of our planet.
