On February 5^th, 2015 a special conference on de-extinction titled, “De-extinction: Rescue or Boondoggle?” was held at the Memorial Union. Coming a few days after Elizabeth Kolbert’s visit to OSU to present on her recent publication The Sixth Extinction, the question of large-scale species loss was on the minds of those in attendance. Here two graduate students from History of Science discuss some of the talks given at the conference!

We Have Always Been De-Extincting –Elizabeth Nielsen

Or at least, that’s historian Luis Campos’ claim. The Oregon State University School of History, Philosophy, and Religion and the Horning Endowment for the Humanities recently hosted a symposium on the phenomenon of synthetic biology, or de-extinction. Current Horning Professor Anita Guerrini organized the well-attended and fascinating conference. Continue reading →