The Dawn Chorus: Real-life Jurassic Park tech saving the rhino, a 10-hour nature epic and our Quiz of the Day

The tech millionaire playing God, and trying to save the world's most endangered animals

As rich as the likes of Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos are today, the money they made still falls short, once adjusted for inflation, of the fortunes of the so-called ‘robber barons’ of the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. Men like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller amassed fortunes that, once adjusted for inflation, would have Mark Zuckerberg feeling like he ought to root around the back of the sofa for that pile of $1,000 notes he mislaid the other day.

There is another difference with modern gazillionaires, though. The Carnegies and the Gettys tended to immortalise their names via concert halls, museums and galleries, today most of them seem to spend their wealth on gold-plated cars or going on holiday in space. (Thankfully not all; the late Chuck Feeny spent decades disbursing his loot, while Gates and his wife Melinda have done an admirable job of trying to make a positive difference via their foundation.)

All of which brings us to Ben Lamm, a software engineer made good who, in 2021, launched a company called Colossal Laboratories & Biosciences, with a stated aim of using ‘CRISPR’ genetic technology to bring back long-extinct species such as woolly mammoths. That put Lamm and his backers firmly in ‘sunbathing on Mars’ territory, in the eyes of most people. It’s essentially the plot of Jurassic Park made real: the premise of CRISPR is that any gaps in genetic code to be filled in, thus making artificially-created embryos viable.

Now, though, Lamm has launched a new branch of this enterprise — the Colossal Foundation — which is considerably less sci-fi in scope, and all the more welcome for it. The same gene tech will be used to help save species right on the very edge of extinction, including Northern White and Sumatran Rhinos, Red Wolf, Northern Quoll, Ivory Billed Woodpecker, and Pink Pigeon. So few of these sort of creatures remain that even breeding programmes are too late, since the species’ genetic diversity has fallen below the threshold needed for healthy restoration of population.

The hope is that this cutting-edge science can solve that problem: ‘The focus will be on those species closest to extinction to ensure their genetic diversity is not lost and the potential to bring them back, should the worst happen.’ Are Lamm and Colossal Foundation playing (or attempting to play) God? Probably — but if humans have messed up what Nature once made, perhaps it's incumbent on us to fix our mess. Voltaire once said, 'If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.'

Quiz of the Day

1) To whom do the german shepherds Champ and Major belong to?

2) What type of orange is used to flavour Earl Grey tea?

3) How many King Williams and Henrys of England have there been in total?

4) Which singer’s stage persona was The Thin White Duke?

5) Which five-letter Greek root word means ‘green’?

Answers down below.

Feeling stressed?

The BBC have the answer — or an answer, at any rate — in the form of a 10-hour (yes TEN HOUR) video of relaxing scenes they've uploaded to one of their YouTube channels.

https://youtu.be/K9g4tgKCB9g?si=shRR5yG8OpW2ckD6

Never, ever grumble about your licence fee again.

The weather forecast for the next six months

I asked Alexa this morning if if would rain yesterday.

She said no. She lied.

I got wet.

But what did I expect? When we first got an Alexa my daughter was listening to the Grease soundtrack most days, and she was excited about being able to do so with a voice command. Except no matter what prompt we used, Alexa would only ever play the French version. All together now: 'Tu es celle que je veux! / Celui que je veux /Ooh, ooh, ooh/Miel!'

Still on the market

Great Tangley Manor in Surrey has been looking for new owners for a while — but you feel that it's just a matter of time before one of the oldest continually-occupied homes in Britain finds its latest incumbent. Read the full story of the 1,000-year-old home with a £5 million discount.

This you must see

Photographer Rick Guest has spent years trawling the globe for incredible artefacts, from Hemingway's typewriter to the gun used by Gavrilo Princip to assassinate Archduke Ferdinand and kickstart the First World War to Alan Turing's wristwatch. The pictures he's taken of each of these things is going on display at the startkx.com art fair next week.

That's your lot — we're back tomorrow at 7am

Quiz answers

1) President Joe Biden

2) Bergamot

3) 12 (4+8)

4) David Bowie

5) Chlor