Mendel's Ark

Does extinction have to be forever? As the global extinction crisis accelerates, conservationists and policy-makers increasingly use advanced biotechnologies such as reproductive cloning, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and bioinformatics in the urgent effort to save species.

Mendel's Ark considers the ethical, cultural and social implications of using these tools for wildlife conservation. Drawing upon sources ranging from science to science fiction, it focuses on the stories we tell about extinction and the meanings we ascribe to nature and technology.

The use of biotechnology in conservation is redrawing the boundaries between animals and machines, nature and artifacts, and life and death. The new rhetoric and practice of de-extinction will thus have significant repercussions for wilderness and for society. The degree to which we engage collectively with both the prosaic and the fantastic aspects of biotechnological conservation will shape the boundaries and ethics of our desire to restore lost worlds.

Combines science, technology and society studies with environmental studies, giving a new view on the problem of species extinction and the biodiversity crisis Will appeal to scholars in such emerging areas as animal studies and post-humanities, as well as established disciplines such as political science and anthropology Broadens the study of the life sciences from health and medical applications to the environment and wildlife preservation Engages with a the significant, controversial and highly visible new rhetoric of "de-extinction" Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Inhalt
1 The Future of Extinction1.1 Goodbye to the Baiji1.2 Hello to the Anthropocene1.3 Wicked Problems and Socio-Technical Imaginaries1.4 Telling Stories about Extinction1.5 Taking Control of Nature's Realm1.6 The Once and Future BaijiReferences 2 A Political History of Extinction2.1 From Eden to Extinction. . . and Back Again? 2.2 Fossils and Frontiers: Debating ExtinctionDuring the Enlightenment2.3 The Politics of Extinction in the Progressive Era2.4 Spaceship Earth: Twentieth Century Environmentalism2.5 Climate, Catastrophe and Conservation Biology2.6 Everything Old is New Again: Biotechnology and De-Extinction References 3 Bio-Inventories: The Digitization of Nature 3.1 They Had to Count Them All: Bioinformatics and DNA Barcoding3.2 Cracking the Code of Life: Bioinformatics in the Twentieth Century3.3 The Encyclopaedia of Life3.4 A Barcode for Every Species 3.5 Digital NaturesReferences .4Bio-Interventions: Cloning Endangered Species as Wildlife Conservation 4.1 Is Nature Over? 4.2 The Molecular Frontier: Biotechnology and Life as Code4.3 FromWistar Rats to Oncomice: Engineering Animals4.4 Dolly and Polly: Animal Cloning Hits the Big Time4.5 Noah's Ark: Cloning on the Edge of Extinction4.6 Preservation in a Petri DishReferences .5 Bio-Identities: Cloning the Recently Extinct5.1 Liminal Lives: The Biopolitics of De-extinction .5.2 The Past Comes Alive: Ancient DNA as Time Travel 5.3 Tasmanian Tiger Tales 5.4 Spectacular Science5.5 Pickled Pups and Promises5.6 Reviving and Restoring5.7 See It Now, While It's Still Extinct References 6 Bio-Imaginaries: Bringing Back the Woolly Mammoth6.1 Entering the Hall of Extinct Monsters6.2 How to Resurrect a Woolly Mammoth6.3 Engineering Life: Synthetic Biology6.4 In Search of Lost WorldsReferences