We were really excited to host our first mini-conference of the academic year on de-extinction. But what is de-extinction?
In a nutshell, the idea is to bring animals (or plants) back from extinction (we know, this does sound a bit like Jurassic Park, but we assure you, it's quite unlikely we'll be able to bring back any dinosaurs!).
We had two amazing scientists who agreed to give a talk. The first was Professor Mark Thomas, an expert in ancient DNA extraction who told us about the feasibility of bringing back a mammoth from the dead (spoiler alert: it's very difficult, if even possible!). The second was Kate Jones, a Professor of Ecology and Biodiversity. She bought up some very interesting questions about the ethics and morals of de-extinction: should we bring back extinct species? Which ones should we choose? Why those?
The talks were followed by some great questions and discussion (and donuts). We'd love to thank both our speakers for agreeing to participate in this mini-conference and to all of those who came to the event! We can't wait to see everyone again at our next conference (BANC Conference, Tuesday 19th November).