Dire Straits

By Sean McVeigh

“Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.” So says Dr. Ian Malcolm, as portrayed by Jeff Goldblum, in the 1993 classic “Jurassic Park.” A fantasy tale about resurrecting dinosaurs from extinction using DNA from fossils. Well, it appears fantasy has become reality.

This week, it was revealed that a Dallas based company called Colossal Biosciences successfully “de-extincted” the dire wolf, a species that hasn’t roamed the Earth in some 12,500 years. While previously extinct, the dire wolf was enjoying a good bit of recent celebrity coming off HBO’s hit series “Game of Thrones” where the wolf was a symbol of the Stark family. There are now three dire wolf pups running wild on 2,000 acres of undisclosed and closely monitored land.

Not to venture too far into the weeds here, but what these scientists did was take DNA from dire wolf fossils — specifically from a 13,000-year-old tooth and a 72,000-year-old skull, according to a press release from Colossal Biosciences. They then made 20 edits to a modern-day gray wolf’s DNA — which was already a 99.5% match — to replicate what they found in the extinct dire wolf DNA.

And Colossal Biosciences isn’t stopping with the dire wolf. According to CNN, the company expects the first woolly mammoth calves to arrive around 2028. There are also plans in the works to bring back the dodo bird and the Tasmanian tiger.

At first glance, it feels like we’ve all seen this story before. We’ve watched “Jurassic Park,” we’ve read “Frankenstein,” and we know the tale of Icarus flying too close to the sun. These stories rarely end well for humanity.

All of this begs the question: where do we draw the line? The dodo bird probably wouldn’t have a massive ecological impact (let’s hope they don’t nest on Northeast beaches — we’re full!), but what happens when they decide to bring back the velociraptor — or the granddaddy of them all, the Tyrannosaurus rex?

No one’s talking about going that far yet, but come on — you don’t think it’s crossed their minds? I know it’s crossed mine and I’ve been thinking about this project for 48 hours, not several years.

But with all that stipulated, how can you not be excited about this? These scientists brought an animal back from extinction. Yet again, we have front row seats for another groundbreaking scientific advancement. It truly does appear that the possibilities are endless with the technology at our fingertips.

There is no doubt that critics of the project will cry hubris. Are we flying too close to the sun? But hubris has been the defining feature of humanity since we left our caves. Was it not hubris that made explorers sail farther than anyone had ever sailed before, which led to the discovery of the new world? It was certainly hubris to think we could fly, but that did not stop us from leaving the ground. And less than one hundred years after that, we decided that was not enough and we left the planet to go to the moon. I hope that we are not humble enough to stop there.

I hope the best and brightest among us continue to push the limits as we know them. I hope they keep discovering cures for diseases that have marred humanity and cut life too short for generations.

Is the dire wolf, or at least some genetically modified version of a dire wolf, the pinnacle of our scientific achievements? No, but it’s certainly another feather in the cap of humanity. And who knows what other previously impassable doors this will now unlock.

“Life will find a way,” says Dr. Ian Malcolm in “Jurassic Park.” After close to 13,000 years, it certainly has again for the dire wolf — thanks to the incredible work of modern science and humanity’s persistent hubris.