AOU President Susan Haig to give talk at TEDxDeExtinction

[Fern Davies]

Open to the public and available by webcast, this TEDx panel will on 15 March 2013 discuss the possibility of "de-extinction" - theuse of advances in molecular biology to restore extinct species.

In the past two years, longtime TEDsters Stewart Brand and Ryan Phelan have organized two private research workshops to dig into the practical side of the issue, and to explore whether molecular and conservation biologists were interested in working further on the idea. The success of these workshops proved to Brand and Phelan that the idea of de-extinction merited further exploration. Together they have started Revive & Restore as a project within The Long Now Foundation.

The TEDx platform is a unique one to examine de-extinction through the ideas of its key players — conservationists, genetic technology practitioners, scientists on current species-revival projects, ethicists — and an exciting opportunity to explore the possibilities and boundaries of science.

 

AOU President Susan Haig will be among the speakers; she will give a talk entitled "Bringing Back the Birds of Our Dreams.” She will be joined by ornithologists Stan Temple ("De-extinction: A Game-changer for Conservation Biology") and James Tate ("Rules, Regs, and Reactions") and Michael Mace, curator of birds at the San Diego Zoo, who will talk on "California Condors Back from the Brink."

 

TEDxDeExtinction will be livestreamed free to the world, and interested communities around the world are encouraged to organize viewing parties and watch together.

 

For more information, including tickets for those who want to attend the event in person at the National Geographic Headquarters in Washington, D.C. (where you can also spend some time viewing the stunning Birds of Paradise exhibit!), click here:

 

http://longnow.org/revive/tedxdeextinction/about/