I decided to reread this book since the de-extinction of the Woolly Mammoth has made it into mainstream news. I loved it the first time around and still do.

This book covers so many topics; science, biology, bioengineering, ecology, climate change. Ben Mezrich does a brilliant job of making all of the science behind CRISPR so accessible for the non-scientist so that you can actually understand and appreciate how tremendous of an advancement this tool is for gene editing.

"Science was no longer confined to studying, understanding, and explaining the natural world. It was no longer limited to reading the secrets and mysteries hidden within nature. Science was now capable of writing those secrets, down at the cellular level. Biology and genetics had gone from passive observation to active creation."

Even if it is scientifically possible to bring back Woolly Mammoths, to de-extinct them if you will, why would you want or need to? In order to answer that question you have to travel back in time to when the tundra was a lush Arctic grassland. The theory is that this grassland was maintained by the large herbivores who ate the grasses and then fertilized and churned the earth thereby tilling the permafrost and keeping it frozen. Now with global climate change the permafrost, which contains massive pockets of methane will begin to melt releasing unknown quantities of carbon into the atmosphere. By reintroducing this megafauna this thawing process could be stopped and (fingers crossed) reversed.

"Woolly" is a very good book and I highly recommend it. It's beautifully written. It's beautifully written never getting bogged down in heady science lingo. And who knows, maybe in some not too distant future mammoths may once again roam the Arctic tundra.