Dire Consequences for Dire Wolf Naysayers
...plus bees, projectile vomiting, and delayed gratification.
This week the news has been full of excitable reports of dire wolves being brought back from extinction, after some 10,000 years. The massive canine once roamed the plains and mountains of North and South America, hunting now-extinct species of horse, bison, camel and deer. But about 13,000 years ago, the dire wolves, along with many other large carnivores and herbivores, became extinct, as a result of climate change and human influence. Sound familiar?
But now, a private biotechnology company called Colossal have boldly claimed to have ‘de-extincted’ the dire wolf, as they presented three adorable-looking puppies, Romulus, Remus, and Khaleesi, to the world.
Colossal’s ultimate goal is one of ecological rebalancing. Just as humans may have been implicated in the dire wolves’ demise, we have continued to push Earth’s ecosystems to breaking point. Clearing land for farming, overfishing, poaching, and the intentional and unintentional introduction of invasive non-native species has thrown food webs off kilter, and our inexorable spread as well as man-made climate change is putting pressure on from the other direction. We are facing a biodiversity crisis, and Colossal hope to address it by replacing some of the key players that we’ve lost along the way.
A few months ago, I wrote about the impact of predators on ecosystems, using the reintroduction of grey wolves into Yellowstone as a case study. On the face of it, it’s easy to imagine that plopping an apex predator like a grey wolf or a dire wolf, into any habitat, would be a recipe for disaster. Surely, they would eat everything in sight, decimating animal populations until all that was left were the predator aliens. But get it right, and an apex hunter can do wonders for natural ecosystems. Yes, they will prey on some of the other animals in the area, but the numbers become self-limiting. They won’t wipe them all out, or else they will be left with no food at all. And the literal thinning of the herd allows vegetation, along with other, smaller, sidelined mammals to return. So, far from decimating Yellowstone, the grey wolves have boosted its biodiversity. You can hear the full story in the ‘First Predator’ episode of the History of the Earth.
So that’s Colossal’s overall goal, and now they’ve announced the first step in this grand vision. They’ve brought back the long-dead dire wolf, the first animal to have ever been de-extincted. With a headline like that, the international media went wild.
But my news feeds, at least - with a heavier than normal dose of scientists and science communicators, are shouting just as loudly to tell us the complete opposite.
“No, the dire wolf ISN’T back”
“A biotech company DIDN’T bring the dire wolf back from extinction”
So who are we to believe? Why the mixed messages? And why am I being made to feel like a fool?
My scientist friends are right, of course. Dive deeper into the specifics of what Colossal have done, and we can see that their claims are at best overblown, at worst blatant incentivised deception. The three snow-white pups that we’re all fawning over do not have exclusively dire wolf DNA. Instead, Colossal started with the DNA of a grey wolf, then edited it in many places to give the animals a handful of dire wolf traits.
What they’ve done is remarkable, applying decades of genetic sequencing and editing technology, to create the first synthetic large mammal species. As a proof of concept for broad-scale genetic manipulation, it’s a masterpiece (whose future application and ethics are a whole other story). They’ve done something no one has ever done before, and the outcome has the benefit of being cute, furry, and friend-shaped. But I agree with the cynics - this is not a de-extinction, it’s the creation of something completely new.
Yet, while I might agree with the naysayers, I’m saddened every time I hear them say so. Not because I wish they were wrong, but because I can see them disappearing down the hole they’re digging for themselves.
Because while we’re facing a climate crisis, and biodiversity crisis, we’re also facing a scientific credibility crisis, and the truth sayers, aka the naysayers, are not helping. For some reason, the world has become wary of scientists and their proclamations. I could go on for hours about why that might be, and I’m sure this won’t be the last time I write about it, but the fact remains that scientific method and fact seems to carry little weight these days. Indeed, it often sends people running in the opposite direction.
And honestly, seeing the scientists’ reaction to the dire wolf story, it’s not hard to see why. Their headlines alone are full of exasperation, and the discourse online only serves to distil those irritated feelings into bitter spleen.
The scientists are irritated with the media’s simple-minded reporting, and with Colossal’s (and similar private biotech companies’) overblown self-aggrandising proclamations. But the people on the receiving end of that irritation are the public. The scientifically untrained, interested but not committed, naive and hopeful public. And how are they supposed to feel in the face of these academics’ anger? I don’t know about you, but when I read:
“No, they didn’t bring the dire wolf back”
…I can almost hear the eye-rolls, and I’m left feeling a little bit foolish for believing that they did in the first place. The tone is belittling, and depending on my strength of mind I’ll either hate on myself for being so gullible, or hate on the smart alecs who seem to get so much joy from proving me wrong.
There will always be sensational headlines. News has to be sensational, outrageous, and attention-grabbing to cut through the noise and stop the scroll. Such is the way of the world these days.
“De-extincting the Dire Wolf” sounds a lot sexier than “Splicing ancient DNA into living wolves” or even “Creating the world’s first synthetic species”. But when so much of cutting edge science has been privatised, there are investors to please, and you need to break out the big guns to guarantee your impact. The problem is that they push the truth too far. It’s a tactic that works for the company. Not many people would have heard about Colossal before this week, now they’re front page news all over the world. All press is good press, as they say.
But stunts like this are doing no good for scientific trust. The sensationalist headlines are drowning out the truth, when the truth itself is really quite remarkable by itself. It’s getting harder and harder to pick the fact from fiction, so you’d think that having a voice of academic authority would set the record straight. But the attitude that comes with that authority is undermining it. Nobody likes being made to feel stupid, and when scientists speak up to slam the sensation, focusing on the fact rather than the feeling, they do little more than damage their own reputations.
When I started my media training, nearly 20 years ago, it was straightforward. Tell the story in clear concise language, and make it interesting. But now, the media landscape has changed, and communicators face a tidal wave of attention deficit, which is often met with a similar sized wall of flashy insubstantial clickbait. Fighting through all of that is a near impossible task, and it’s understandable that those that do it end up frustrated. But in doing so, many seem to have lost sight of what the public actually sees.
The average Joe and Joanne don’t discriminate between the sources of their information. On their little black mirrors, they see an exciting headline, and then they scroll down to the next one. If that contradicts it, then their world is left a little less exciting than it was a moment before, and they’re left with a seed of confusion tinted with a bit of disappointment. If the academics are the ones consistently planting those seeds, they’re not going to end up making any friends.
I wish things were different. I wish we could encourage a bit more critical reasoning in those who consume the news. But it doesn’t work like that. We perform for the audience we have. As communicators, we must now tread the fine line between the sexy sensationalism that turns us on, and the naysaying that turns us off again. We have to put ourselves in our audience’s shoes, and find a way to tell the truth without belittling. It’s not easy, but we have to try.
I don’t have an answer for how to achieve it. But being a parent to a toddler has given me an insight into communication I never expected. In many ways, a two year old seems a perfect model for the public as a whole. He’s a sponge for information, he’ll believe whatever I tell him without critical thought, but his attention span leaves a lot to be desired, and his emotions are intricately tied to his experiences of the moment. In trying to teach him things, in laying down boundaries, or simply navigating the latest tantrum, I have the greatest success when I getting down on his level, expressing understanding, and being clear, confident, and positive. And that’s what we need to do for all of our audiences.
It’s our responsibility to put ourselves in the public’s shoes, see the world through their eyes, and exude clear, positive energy, to tell our truth without reacting to the noise around us. Do it consistently enough, and maybe, just maybe, the message will get through.
What I Learned - A New You
Our bodies are almost completely replaced every single year.
Just like Trigger’s 20 year old broom from Only Fools and Horses, which has had 17 new heads and 14 new handles, our bodies - the very atoms that makes up our skin, organs, bones and blood, along with about 98% of our bodies, are replaced over the course of a year. Water is the fastest thing to be replaced, followed by the soft tissues that are in a constant state of renewal. Even our bones and teeth are gradually dissolved and recrystallised. So if you feel like a different person to the one who started this decade, you almost certainly are.
What I Saw - Bees and Blossom
Here in the southeast of England, the springtime blossom is out in full force, and we’ve enjoyed an unseasonably warm and sunny couple of weeks. I’ve been particularly delighted to see bees getting to work amid the newly emerged blooms. Honeybees and bumblebees seem to be the earliest risers, and I can’t help but stop and watch them whenever I spot them. When he was very little, Science baby would try and gently touch them as they moved from flower to flower, feeling the vibration of their wings through their fuzzy bodies. Whenever I see the bees now, I can’t help but think of those golden moments. Real core memory material.
What is spring looking like wherever you are? See anything delightful in the real world this week? Leave a comment and let me know!
What My Brain is Consuming - Public Service Broadcasting
We recently had our first date night in two years without Science Baby, where we went to see Public Service Broadcasting live. It’s been so long since I’ve been to a gig, I forgot that I’d have to stand up the whole time, and my old lady mum feet were sore by the end of it, but the show left me buzzing.
Public Service Broadcasting are an eclectic mix of rocky, electronicy, dancy music that leans heavily on historical broadcast sampling. It’s somehow ambient and gripping all at the same time.
I fell in love with them the first time I heard ‘Go!’, which effectively sets the Apollo 11 moon landing to music. That track is part of a whole album that documents the space race.
My new favourite track is ‘The Fun of It’ which, honestly, is just a happy feel good bop.
What music is getting you moving? Let me know in a comment
Who I’m Enjoying - Agate Dad
My guilty pleasure on TikTok at the moment combines power tools, rocks, and a healthy dose of delayed gratification. @agate_dad is tickling my rock and fossil fancy.
It’s a simple formula: take an unassuming rock, press it tantalisingly slowly against a wetted diamond saw to slice it in two, and reveal the striped, crystalline wonders within.
You can find short rock cutting videos on TikTok and Instagram, and longer vlogs and explainers on YouTube. And if you have any recommendations for great people online, let me know!
Updates from the Science Family
It’s been an eventful and very emotional week. Science baby has been in a wonderful nursery three afternoons a week for the last year, and it’s done so much for him. I’ve seen his communication, dexterity, and social skills go from strength to strength. But a while ago, we made the bittersweet decision to switch nurseries, to give him access to forest school. The boy loves the outdoors and has limitless energy, and he had really outgrown his lovely little first setting.
This was his last week at his old nursery, and of course he had no idea that anything was different, but I was beside myself every time I thought of the teachers and friends he wouldn’t see again.
Added to that, he’s been ill for what seems like the 500th time this year already. A snotty nose developed into an upset tummy, and one of the most spectacular displays of projectile vomiting across his bedroom that I’ve seen yet. Just a little extra stress to add to an already emotional week. He’s fine now, and we’re off on holiday for a few days. I’ll be glad to see the back of this week!
p.s. He learned to play the harmonica! We will never know peace again.