Ben Novak, a scientist in California is using DNA technology to resurrect the passenger pigeon.
Novak’s pigeon is not alone in this quest. The art of breathing new life into long-extinct species is in vogue among biologists. The Tasmanian tiger, the woolly rhinoceros, the mammoth, the dodo and the gastric-breeding frog are all on the list of for revivification by scientists.
Not to be outdone, the GOP has brought the 1850’s Know Nothing Party, not seen since the US civil war, back to life even earlier than the passenger pigeon, last seen in the 1890’s. Some question whether resurrection is a goal for scientists at all. “Conservation biology’s priority must remain that of ensuring a future for species (currently) existing on the planet,” retired Professor Stanley Temple of the University of Wisconsin-Madison says critically. He fears that species extinction could be trivialized in the future. “People might say: ‘Can’t we let them go extinct and bring them back later?'”
This of course was not intended to refer to the GOP. On the other hand, there have been rumors of efforts to resurrect Reagan and Thatcher. Donald Trump, a likely donor to the effort, has pointed out there can be no greater monument to dead leaders than bringing their genetic copies back to life.