A Biotechnological Boost to Wildlife Conservation—Ben Novak—Revive & Restore
Finding Genius Podcast
Richard Jacobs
4.4 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 8 May 2020
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ben Novak is the lead scientist at Revive & Restore, a leading wildlife conservation organization that promotes the incorporation of biotechnology in various conservation efforts.
He joins the show to discuss some fascinating topics, including the following:
- What important function is carried out by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
- How it would work to restore and bring to life the long-extinct woolly mammoth
- The ever so relevant distinction between a species that is extinct versus "on ice"
- How humans can act as surrogate mothers to simulate natural parenting and family environments for various species
Novak joined the Revive & Restore team in early 2012 to work on the Passenger Pigeon Project. Since then, he's worked on a number of projects, including those involving the endangered black-footed ferret and endangered heath hens.
For over a century now, scientists have been restoring populations once they go extinct, but this hasn't been done for every vital extinct species, such as the woolly mammoth and Passenger Pigeon. This is where the team at Revive & Restore sees the greatest potential for new biotechnologies to enhance and improve conservation efforts.
Among these technologies are animal gene editing, embryogenesis, and primordial germ cell transfer. Novak says that reproductive technologies are needed in order for their current projects to succeed, and he explains how the Catalyst Science Fund program has begun employing reproductive techniques for use in poultry, but not in wildlife. To reach this end, they are beginning with a project on the greater prairie chicken, which was funded just last year and has remained unimpeded since.
Novak discusses the details of the various projects they're working on, how the prevention or reversal of species extinction could be accomplished with different biotechnologies, current restoration projects, and the many concerns and challenges encountered in this type of work.
Check out https://reviverestore.org/ to learn more.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Forget frequently asked questions. |
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| 0:07.0 | 95% of people in any profession are good enough to be qualified and licensed. |
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| 0:18.0 | Richard Jacobs has made it his life's mission to find them for you. He hunts down and interviews geniuses in every field, |
| 0:25.0 | sleep science, cancer, stem cells, ketogenic diets, and more. Here come the geniuses. |
| 0:30.3 | This is the Finding Genius Podcast. |
| 0:33.0 | That is Richard Jacobs. |
| 0:35.0 | Hello, this is Richard Jacobs with the Finding Genius Podcast. |
| 0:41.0 | My guest today is Ben Novak. He's a lead scientist at |
| 0:44.3 | Revive and Restore. That's the website is Revive Restore.org and they're a |
| 0:49.4 | leading wildlife conservation organization. They promote the incorporation of biotechnologies into conservation practice. |
| 0:56.0 | I'm not sure what it means yet, but we'll get into that. |
| 0:59.0 | So, Ben, thanks for coming. How are you doing? |
| 1:01.0 | I'm doing very good. Thank you for having me. |
| 1:03.3 | Yeah. What's your main project or projects at Revive and Restore? |
| 1:07.8 | I was brought on to Revive and Restore at the very beginning in 2012 to lead the passenger pigeon de-extinction effort. |
| 1:16.3 | However, since then, as our projects have diversified, growing greatly into endangered species. |
| 1:24.0 | I have been working with black-footed ferrets, |
| 1:28.0 | also on heath hens and now our catalyst science fund management with the coordinator Bridget Baum Gardner. |
| 1:37.0 | So how do you, how does the organization identify which animals not only are in danger of extinction but which ones they have to save first or revitalize first? |
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