Scientists genetically engineer mice with thick hair like the extinct woolly mammoth

In this Feb 2025 photo provided by Colossal Biosciences are genetically edited mice with long, thick, woolly hair at a lab in Dallas, Texas. (AP)
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Updated 05 March 2025
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Scientists genetically engineer mice with thick hair like the extinct woolly mammoth

  • Scientists have been genetically engineering mice since the 1970s, but new technologies like CRISPR “make it a lot more efficient and easier,” said Lynch

WASHINGTON: Extinction is still forever, but scientists at the biotech company Colossal Biosciences are trying what they say is the next best thing to restoring ancient beasts — genetically engineering living animals with qualities to resemble extinct species like the woolly mammoth.
Woolly mammoths roamed the frozen tundras of Europe, Asia and North America until they went extinct around 4,000 years ago.
Colossal made a splash in 2021 when it unveiled an ambitious plan to revive the woolly mammoth and later the dodo bird. Since then, the company has focused on identifying key traits of extinct animals by studying ancient DNA, with a goal to genetically “engineer them into living animals,” said CEO Ben Lamm.
Outside scientists have mixed views about whether this strategy will be helpful for conservation.
“You’re not actually resurrecting anything — you’re not bringing back the ancient past,” said Christopher Preston, a wildlife and environment expert at the University of Montana, who was not involved in the research.
On Tuesday, Colossal announced that its scientists have simultaneously edited seven genes in mice embryos to create mice with long, thick, woolly hair. They nicknamed the extra-furry rodents as the “Colossal woolly mouse.”
Results were posted online, but they have not yet been published in a journal or vetted by independent scientists.
The feat “is technologically pretty cool,” said Vincent Lynch, a biologist at the University of Buffalo, who was not involved in the research.
Scientists have been genetically engineering mice since the 1970s, but new technologies like CRISPR “make it a lot more efficient and easier,” said Lynch.
The Colossal scientists reviewed DNA databases of mouse genes to identify genes related to hair texture and fat metabolism. Each of these genetic variations are “present already in some living mice,” said Colossal’s chief scientist Beth Shapiro, but “we put them all together in a single mouse.”
They picked the two traits because these mutations are likely related to cold tolerance — a quality that woolly mammoths must have had to survive on the prehistoric Arctic steppe.
Colossal said it focused on mice first to confirm if the process works before potentially moving on to edit the embryos of Asian elephants, the closest living relatives to woolly mammoths.
However, because Asian elephants are an endangered species, there will be “a lot of processes and red tape” before any plan can move forward, said Colossal’s Lamm, whose company has raised over $400 million in funding.
Independent experts are skeptical about the idea of “de-extinction.”
“You might be able to alter the hair pattern of an Asian elephant or adapt it to the cold, but it’s not bringing back a woolly mammoth. It’s changing an Asian elephant,” said University of Montana’s Preston.
Still, the refinement of precision gene-editing in animals could have other uses for conservation or animal agriculture, said Bhanu Telugu, who studies animal biotechnology at the University of Missouri and was not involved in the new research.
Telugu said he was impressed by Colossal’s technology advances that enabled scientists to pinpoint which genes to target.
The same approach might one day help fight diseases in people, said Lamm. So far, the company has spun off two health care companies.
“It’s part of how we monetize our business,” said Lamm.
 

 


Growing Arctic military presence worries Finland’s reindeer herders

Updated 24 May 2025
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Growing Arctic military presence worries Finland’s reindeer herders

  • Finland, which shares a 1,340-kilometer border with Russia, dropped decades of military non-alignment to join NATO in 2023
  • Finland has 4,305 reindeer owners and around 184,000 reindeer, living in 57 reindeer husbandry districts

ROVANIEMI, Finland: A fighter jet roaring through the grey sky breaks the tranquility of a boreal forest in northern Finland, one more sign of a growing military presence that is challenging the ability of reindeer herders to exercise their livelihood.
“Military activity has increased massively here since Finland joined NATO,” reindeer herder Kyosti Uutela said on a tour in Rovajarvi, the largest artillery practice range in western Europe, on a day when no ground exercises were underway.
Located 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the Russian border, Rovajarvi covers an area of 1,070 square kilometers on land that also makes up part of the reindeer husbandry district that Uutela heads.
Finland, which shares a 1,340-kilometer border with Russia, dropped decades of military non-alignment to join NATO in 2023 in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
And in 2024, a defense cooperation agreement between the United States and Finland came into force.
“Training activities and exercises have increased since the beginning of the war in Ukraine” because of the worsened security situation, the Finnish Defense Forces told AFP in a statement.
“This is naturally also reflected in Rovajarvi,” it said, saying the firing range provided unique training possibilities for international troops thanks to its size, terrain and seasonal changes.
Last year, Finland participated in 103 military exercises at home and abroad, up from 89 in 2023.
Ascending a small hill where the forest has been clear-cut and trenches dug for training purposes, Uutela said the spot “had been lost” as a grazing ground.
“The use of heavy army tanks and the presence of thousands of soldiers in the forest destroy the lichen pastures,” Uutela said, referring to the reindeer’s main source of food.
“Reindeer will not be able to live here anymore,” he said.
Finland has 4,305 reindeer owners and around 184,000 reindeer, living in 57 reindeer husbandry districts that cover 36 percent of the country’s total area.
A part of them belong to the indigenous Sami population that lives in Sapmi, which straddles northern regions of Finland, Sweden, Norway and Russia.
The non-Sami people such as Uutela who also practice reindeer husbandry include herders living near the Rovajarvi range, outside the Sapmi homeland.
Full-time herders sell reindeer meat, pelts and handicrafts as their main source of income, and husbandry has been an integral part of the indigenous Sami culture for generations.
Riikka Poropudas, another herder in Rovajarvi, said the military presence in the area had increased “radically” since Finland’s NATO accession, forcing herders to feed their reindeer in fenced areas more often than before.
Finland’s Defense Forces said the needs of reindeer husbandry were “taken into account in the planning of exercises, for example in terms of the times and locations,” adding that they were in daily contact with Rovajarvi herders.
But Poropudas worries that a large live-fire and combat exercise involving around 6,500 soldiers from Finland, Sweden and Britain this month would disturb her reindeer.
The calving season is at its busiest in mid-May.
“The activities stress both female reindeer and newborn calves, and drive them away from their natural pastures,” she said.
Tuomas Aslak Juuso, acting president of the Sami parliament in Finland, said climate change and land use changes – including the militarization of the Arctic – posed special challenges for the roughly 1,200 Sami reindeer herders in Finland.
“Our way of reindeer husbandry depends fully on the herding model and the reindeer being able to graze freely on natural pasture lands,” he said.
But the effects of climate change on winter conditions already mean that herders increasingly have to provide their reindeer with supplementary feed “in order to avoid mass deaths.”
A large international military exercise conducted in Finnish Sapmi in 2023 had been “quite a negative experience for the Sami people,” Juuso said.
“The local reindeer herders had not been informed beforehand, grazing conditions for that spring were damaged and tractors damaged the lichen cover, which may never grow back,” he said.
“When these things are planned, there should be early consultation with the Sami and responsibility for damage and harm.”


Moscow bids farewell to late ballet supremo Grigorovich

Updated 23 May 2025
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Moscow bids farewell to late ballet supremo Grigorovich

MOSCOW: Fans paid tribute on Friday in Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre to late ballet supremo Yuri Grigorovich, who died this week at the age of 98.
Born in the Soviet city of Leningrad to a ballet family, Grigorovich’s career — as a dancer and choreographer — spanned 80 years.
For much of it, he was the artistic powerhouse behind the Bolshoi, which he was said to have run with an iron fist.
Grigorovich made his name staging classics such as The Nutcracker, Swan Lake and The Stone Flower.
The latter was his most famous piece, based on folk tales from the Urals accompanied by composer Sergei Prokofiev’s music.
He then led the Bolshoi between 1964 and 1995.
“This man was a gift from God,” Agnessa Balieva, 78, a former star dancer at the Bolshoi, told AFP when she came to pay tribute to Grigorovich.
The choreographer’s coffin was covered in garlands in front of the stage of the Bolshoi, alongside a large black and white portrait of him, while music from his ballets was played.
“He was a great man, a genius, a legend,” said Ilia Krivov, a 42-year-old former Bolshoi dancer.
He said Grigorovich had elevated male ballet to “an unprecedented level.”
“Grigorovich was the soul of the Bolshoi,” said Svetlana Staris, a journalist and poet, hailing a figure who “revolutionized ballet.”


‘Leap together,’ Kermit the Frog says in commencement address at University of Maryland graduation

Updated 23 May 2025
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‘Leap together,’ Kermit the Frog says in commencement address at University of Maryland graduation

  • Kermit, who was created in 1955 and became the centerpiece of the Muppets franchise, is no stranger to the school
  • Muppets creator Jim Henson graduated from Maryland in 1960 with home economics as his major

COLLEGE PARK, Maryland: Kermit the Frog knows it’s not easy being green — or graduating from college and entering the real world, especially during a time of economic uncertainty and political turmoil.
Members of the University of Maryland’s class of 2025 received their diplomas Thursday evening with sage advice from the amphibious Muppet ringing in their ears.
“As you prepare to take this big leap into real life, here’s a little advice — if you’re willing to listen to a frog,” the beloved Muppet said. “Rather than jumping over someone to get what you want, consider reaching out your hand and taking the leap side by side, because life is better when we leap together.”

 

The university announced in March that Kermit, who was created in 1955 and became the centerpiece of the Muppets franchise, would be this year’s commencement speaker. He is also no stranger to the school.
Muppets creator Jim Henson graduated from Maryland in 1960. A home economics major, he fashioned the original frog puppet from one of his mother’s coats and a Ping-Pong ball cut in half, according to a statement from the university. Henson died in 1990.
A bronze statue of Henson and Kermit sitting on a bench is a well-known feature of the College Park campus.
In a video announcing the speaker pick, Kermit is described as an environmental advocate, a bestselling author, an international superstar and a champion of creativity, kindness and believing in the impossible.
His speaker bio calls him “a star of stage, screen and swamp” whose simple mission is to “sing and dance and make people happy.”
“I am thrilled that our graduates and their families will experience the optimism and insight of the world-renowned Kermit the Frog at such a meaningful time in their lives,” university President Darryll J. Pines said in a statement.


In tune with nature: expert sounds out all of Ireland’s bird species

Updated 23 May 2025
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In tune with nature: expert sounds out all of Ireland’s bird species

  • Some clips show birds mimicking other animals like dogs, people and other bird species

COBH, Ireland: On a mission to record all of Ireland’s bird species, many of which are dying out, Irishman Sean Ronayne calls his unique audio archive a tool to both raise alarm and bring hope.
According to conservation bodies, some 63 percent of Ireland’s birds are currently either red or amber-listed, meaning they are at severe or moderate extinction risk.
“Birds are in trouble in Ireland like they are across the world, the loss of wildlife — sonically and physically — is devastating to me,” said the 37-year-old.
“But I focus on hope and beauty, which is essential,” the ornithologist told AFP at his home near Cobh (pronounced “Cove“) in County Cork.
More than four years into his recording project he has sampled 201 different Irish bird species, stocking over 12,000 audio clips from around the country, Ronayne told AFP.
Just two remain to be documented: the great skua, and red-breasted merganser.
“If people realize just how spectacular wildlife is, there’s no way they would let it disappear, attitudes would change,” Ronayne said.
Ireland may be famed for its green fields, but Ronayne paints a bleak picture — “realistic” he says — of a degraded landscape and a bird population decimated by vanishing habitats.
Most of Ireland comprises intensively farmed fields bounded by trimmed hedgerows, drained and mined peatlands, overgrazed uplands, and minimal native woodland, he told AFP.
Non-native conifer plantations — approximately nine percent of Ireland’s 11 percent forest cover — are also a biodiversity villain, described by Ronayne as “a species-poor industrial cash-crop.”
“I try to show people the beauty of what we’re erasing and what we must stand up and fight for,” said the wildlife expert.
Last year he published an award-winning book, released two albums, and made an acclaimed documentary film. His talk tour is currently selling out venues around Ireland.
“Wildlife sound is such a great engaging tool to connect people to nature itself and get them acquainted with everything that’s on their doorstep,” Ronayne told AFP.
“If you know your neighbor you’re more likely to help them in times of need,” he said.
At the shows Ronayne, who was diagnosed with a form of autism as an adult, presents the story of his life and how nature is woven through it.
He also plays audio of warbles, tweets, trills, screeches and chirps, and mystery sounds, inviting the audience to guess the origin.
Some clips show birds mimicking other animals like dogs, people and other bird species.
“Some species in my collection can mimic 30 to 40 other species in their song,” he said.
Laughter is common at his talks, but also tears and grief as listeners learn of Ireland’s endangered birdlife.


Ronayne regularly holds “dawn chorus” walks, bringing small groups into silent forests far from road noise to experience the birdlife waking up.
A gradually building cacophony of sound, the dawn chorus is “a reflection of the health of a given environment,” he told AFP in an old woodland near his home while waiting for sunrise.
“The more sonically diverse it is, the healthier the habitat is,” he said.
After unpacking his audio recorder, parabolic microphone and tripod, he quickly identified the melodies of song thrushes, robins, blackbirds, goldcrests and others as they greeted the day.
“Chiffchaff! Did you hear that?! There’s a grey wagtail!” he exclaimed, head twitching toward each sound in the lifting gloom.
Ronayne also hides recorders for weeks and even months in remote untouched places where birds congregate.
On Ballycotton beach near Cobh, migrating birds swirled overhead before settling on an adjacent lagoon.
Ronayne carefully placed a waterproof recorder — able to run for up two weeks — in grass by the shore.
“They have to fly right over here to there,” he said pointing upwards at their route.
“After I collect it I’ll be able to monitor the birds, capture their calls, and tell environmental stories from the audio,” he said.
Back home, he scrolled on a computer showing thousands of archived sonogram clips — visual representations of sound — of birdsong audio.
Each entry included data on the behavior, calls and protected status of each bird: many either red or amber.
“First we must realize how wonderful nature is, then how fragile it is, and how much we have kicked it down,” Ronayne told AFP.
“When we as a society fall back in love with nature, and respect it as we once did, beautiful things will happen.”


Disney delays next two Marvel ‘Avengers’ movies

Updated 23 May 2025
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Disney delays next two Marvel ‘Avengers’ movies

  • “Avengers: Doomsday” now will come out on December 18, 2026

LOS ANGELES: Walt Disney’s movie studio has postponed the release of the next two installments in Marvel’s blockbuster “Avengers” series, the company said on Thursday.
“Avengers: Doomsday” now will come out on December 18, 2026, about seven months later than its previous date of May 1. “Doomsday” will bring Robert Downey Jr. back to the franchise as the villain, Doctor Doom.
Disney also moved “Avengers: Secret Wars” to December 17, 2027 from May 2, 2027.
The new schedule was chosen to give the filmmakers more time to complete the superhero movies, which are among the biggest Disney has ever made, a source familiar with the matter said. “Doomsday” is already in production.
“Avengers: Endgame,” released in 2019, is the second-highest grossing movie of all time with $2.8 billion in global ticket sales, behind “Avatar” with $2.9 billion.