Ben Mezrich, Woolly

Ben Mezrich, Woolly: The True Story of the Quest to Revive One of History’s Most Iconic Extinct Creatures

In Conversation with Molly Samuel, Reporter, WABE, 90.1 FM

Science fiction becomes reality in this Jurassic Park-like story of the genetic resurrection of an extinct species—the woolly mammoth—by Ben Mezrich, bestselling author of The Accidental Billionaires and Bringing Down the House. With his gift for turning narrative nonfiction into stories that read like the best thriller fiction, Mezrich takes us on an exhilarating true adventure story from the icy terrain of Siberia to the cutting-edge genetic labs of Harvard University. A group of young scientists, under the guidance of Dr. George Church, the most brilliant geneticist of our time, work to make fantasy reality by sequencing the DNA of a frozen woolly mammoth harvested from above the Arctic circle, and splicing elements of that sequence into the DNA of a modern elephant. Will they be able to turn the hybrid cells into a functional embryo and bring the extinct creatures to life in our modern world? More than a story of genetics, this is a thriller illuminating the race against global warming, the incredible power of modern technology, the brave fossil hunters who battle polar bears and extreme weather conditions, and the ethical quandary of cloning extinct animals. Can we right the wrongs of our ancestors who hunted the woolly mammoth to extinction—and at what cost?

About the Author

Ben Mezrich graduated magna cum laude from Harvard. He has published 18 books, including the New York Times bestsellers The Accidental Billionaires, which was adapted into the Academy Award–winning film The Social Network, and Bringing Down the House, which has sold more than 1.5 million copies in 12 languages and was the basis for the hit movie, 21, and most recently the national bestseller, Once Upon a Time in Russia. One of the most influential writers in Hollywood, he lives in Boston.

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