Our next Google+ Hangout on Air: De-Extinction

Join us for our next Google+ Hangout on Air on September 24th at NOON. Topic: De-Extinction

De-Extinction is a word that you don't hear very often but one that is circling within scientific communities, particularly those scientists interested in biodiversity conservation and genetics.  What does it mean? Simply, it is the theoretical possibility of taking DNA from long extinct species, like mammoths or passenger pigeons, and splicing it in to living species that are close relatives (eg. elephants or rock doves, for example), breed them, and voila, a de-extinct creature emerges.

Well, it's not that simple.  

Managing Director of ROM Biodiversity, Dave Ireland (@davehireland) and ROM ornithologist Mark Peck (@Peckasaur) will discuss this process and indeed the pros and cons of the results, with Ben Novak, a leading scientists from the Revive & Restore Project in California who has vowed to "bring the passenger pigeon back from the dead by 2020". And he's doing it with ROM passenger pigeon DNA.

Tune in HERE, use the Q&A app to ask questions or follow @ROMBiodiversity on twitter! #AskROM