Slashdot: The CIA Just Invested in Woolly Mammoth Resurrection Technology

The CIA Just Invested in Woolly Mammoth Resurrection Technology
Published on September 30, 2022 at 01:32AM
As a rapidly advancing climate emergency turns the planet ever hotter, the Dallas-based biotechnology company Colossal Biosciences has a vision: "To see the Woolly Mammoth thunder upon the tundra once again." Founders George Church and Ben Lamm have already racked up an impressive list of high-profile funders and investors, including Peter Thiel, Tony Robbins, Paris Hilton, Winklevoss Capital -- and, according to the public portfolio its venture capital arm released this month, the CIA. From a report: Colossal says it hopes to use advanced genetic sequencing to resurrect two extinct mammals -- not just the giant, ice age mammoth, but also a mid-sized marsupial known as the thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, that died out less than a century ago. On its website, the company vows: "Combining the science of genetics with the business of discovery, we endeavor to jumpstart nature's ancestral heartbeat." In-Q-Tel, its new investor, is registered as a nonprofit venture capital firm funded by the CIA. On its surface, the group funds technology startups with the potential to safeguard national security. In addition to its long-standing pursuit of intelligence and weapons technologies, the CIA outfit has lately displayed an increased interest in biotechnology and particularly DNA sequencing.

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