“If taken without scrutiny,” she writes in her introduction, “the term de-extinction as it is widely used suggests that reversing extinction might actually be achievable. If the idea of resurrecting extinct species still seems like the stuff of fantasy, Wray would like to assure her readers that, on one level at least, it is. Wray uses the word “necrofauna” to describe such potential lifeforms other terms she offers are “resurrection ecology,” “species revivalism,” and the delightful “zombie zoology.” Rise of the Necrofauna takes up where Wells and Shelley leave off, exploring human interventions into the natural world that those authors could only have dreamed about. In her invigorating new book, broadcaster and science writer Britt Wray invokes Frankenstein as a touchstone for a discussion of the science surrounding the possibility of de-extinction – that is, the movement to use genetic engineering, cloning, and the manipulation of DNA to enhance biodiversity by recreating species that have been lost. In that book, the titular doctor – before becoming enamoured with the possibilities of revivifying dead tissue through the process of galvanism – attends a lecture by a famous chemist named Waldman, who suggests that scientists of the day “have acquired new and almost unlimited powers they can command the thunders of heaven, mimic the earthquake, and even mock the invisible world with its overshadows.”
In issuing a warning about the dangers that accrue to a hubristic attempt to manipulate nature, Wells echoes an earlier, similar work: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Moreau, an early example of science fiction as cautionary tale. The study of Nature makes a man at last as remorseless as Nature.” So says the eponymous vivisector in H.G. We bring you part two of Darren and Adam’s discussion with author Britt Wray about her book ‘Rise Of The Necrofauna.’ Cristina checks into the clickbait headline ‘you’re more likely to be killed by a vending machine than a shark.“To this day I have never troubled about the ethics of the matter.
On this week’s show, Pat explains an illusion known as the McGurk Effect which demonstrates the interaction between hearing and vision in speech perception.
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