TED on Tuesday: The Dawn Of De-Extinction

Famous last words, perhaps? Click to view full size.

In a previous entry on this blog, I wrote about my visit to the Museum of Natural History in New York City. Part of what I wrote concerned the destruction of the passenger pigeon. Once numbering in the billions, the last surviving member of that species died almost 100 years ago, in 1914. But what if there was a way to bring back the passenger pigeon? Or the woolly mammoth? Or any number of other extinct species?

Incredibly, utilising science, technology and advances in DNA research, scientists are now close to the point where it is possible to bring extinct species back to life. In this TED Talk, Stewart Brand (the Whole Earth Catalog, The WELL, the Global Business Network, the Long Now Foundation, etc), outlines ongoing research and long term plans to de-extinct some of the animals that have disappeared from the planet.

Granted, resurrecting the woolly mammoth using ancient DNA may sound like mad science. But Brand’s Revive and Restore project has an entirely rational goal: to learn what causes extinctions so we can protect currently endangered species, preserve genetic and biological diversity, repair depleted ecosystems, and essentially “undo harm that humans have caused in the past.”

Watch Stuart Brand’s TED Talk now...

Stewart Brand's newest book is Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto. He is also the author of How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They're Built.

Reflections From The Window Seat

Flying over the Alps to Paris, France

~ So when you travel, where do you prefer to sit: window, aisle or middle seat?

I am definitely a window seat traveller. When I take international flights, I prefer the window seat, not because I can spend most of the flight looking at the scenery from the window – at 30,000 feet, there is not a lot of scenery to see passing over the Pacific Ocean between Australia and North America.

No, I choose window seats because I can wedge myself up against the internal fuselage of the aircraft and get a reasonable amount of sleep without being disturbed by the comings and goings of the other passengers sharing my seating section. The ability to look at the landscape once the plane is passing over areas of country is an added bonus

Gulf Coast from Greyhound Bus window

When travelling by bus or train, I again choose window seats. I am not one of those travellers who bury their head in a book or digital device, or who try to blot out my surroundings by listening to music through a pair of tiny ear buds.

I spend most of the trip looking out the window at the passing parade of small towns and villages, with their pedestrians and local traffic; examining the local architecture, both civic and private; and trying get an understanding (no matter how brief and fleeting) of the lives and loves of the local population.

How about you. Where do you prefer to sit, and why? Feel free to share your opinions and thoughts via the Comments section below.

National September 11 Memorial

~ I paid a visit to the National September 11 Memorial in New York City during August 2012. I expected to be much more emotionally affected by the site, but I wasn't.

On my way to the Memorial site, I also dropped into St. Paul's Chapel, a building I have visited on numerous occasions during my trips to New York, and here I was once more emotionally engaged with the Chapel and the displays there – although these seem to be shrinking as the years pass.

I think the difference between the two sites is that St. Paul’s Chapel connects with you on a personal level, partly because of its accessibility and scale, while the National September 11 Memorial is massive and almost impersonal - despite the almost three thousand names displayed there. Of course, the Chapel still stands, while the towers of the World Trade Center now only exist in our memories, and in the multitude of audio-visual artifacts that remain.

Clearly, visitors with a direct connection to the site will be much more emotionally engaged than myself, and indeed while there, I saw visitors making rubbings of the names of people they knew who were victims of the attacks. Also, once the museum, with its many artifacts and exhibits is finally open, I am sure the whole experience will be much more affecting.

I expect to return to the completed Memorial on subsequent visits to New York City, and I will be interested to see how the experience compares to my August visit. If you are visiting New York, a visit to the National September 11 Memorial is certainly worth the long queues and security checkpoints. Like other major memorial sites (war memorials, Holocaust memorials, and such), the Memorial serves to remind us of the tragedy it commemorates, and to keep alive the memories of the thousands of men, women and children (some unborn), who were victims of the attacks.

Here is a short video I made following my visit:

The song is Sweet Forgiveness, by one of my favourite artists, Iris DeMent… www.irisdement.com