Why did you have to go and mention Elvis?

Higgs the Dog Particle
....before he started reading Bring Back the King.

My new book, 'Bring Back the King: The New Science of De-Extinction' is now on sale. I'm just a little bit excited about that. But as people begin to put the kettle on, make a brew and settle down to read it, I'd like to deal with one issue before it rears its ugly head. This is a popular science book about de-extinction. It's about using high tech methods to save species, not just that are gone, but that are still with us, on the brink of extinction. It's about conservation. It's about biodiversity loss. It's about the staggering rate at which we lose species every day .... but it also contains a chapter on whether or not it's possible to 'de-extinct' Elvis. So what the hell was I thinking? Here follows a conservation between me and serious scientist in which I attempt to answer that very question.

SERIOUS SCIENTIST

A new book about de-extinction? Well done, Helen. That’s brilliant. (SIGHS HEAVILY, ROLLS EYES OUT LOUD) But why did you have to go and ruin it all by including a chapter about Elvis Presley?

ME

What do you mean?

SERIOUS SCIENTIST

Well, Helen. Everyone knows that de-extinction is about bringing back extinct animals, not dead humans. It’s about returning lost genetic variation and biodiversity back into the world. It’s NOT about re-creating burger-eating, rock ‘n’ roll icons, even if such a thing were possible, which it’s not.

ME

Whoa there, Pipette Lady. I know all that.

SERIOUS SCIENTIST

You do. OK, so why did you do it?

ME

Because I was curious. Because you can buy samples of Presley’s hair on eBay. Because scientists can extract DNA from hair, edit genomes, and create genetically identical animals through cloning. I’m interested in how far this technology can be taken.

SERIOUS SCIENTIST

Well, I don’t like it… and I’m not entirely happy about you starting sentences with the word ‘because.’

ME

Because?

SERIOUS SCIENTIST

Because… (PAUSES TO EXPRESS PROFOUD LOOK OF DISAPPOINTMENT) I am not happy because de-extinction is a serious endeavour that you deliberately seem to be making light of.

ME

Well spotted, my friend. My goal is that the whole book is tinged with humour and flippancy and wilful insouciance. It would be relatively easy to write a popular science book with ‘just’ facts in. But if you’re not careful, it can be dull as dishwater and that can put people off. My hope is that, by adding colour and laughs and light-heartedness, I can tempt people who would never normally read a popular science book to do just that.

SERIOUS SCIENTIST

Oh...

ME

And then, whilst they’re reading about Presley’s pickled wart and they’re being entertained and their guard is down, BAM, I hit them with some hard core molecular biology but it’s so subtle that they don’t even know what’s  happened.

SERIOUS SCIENTIST

You literally hit them with a pipette?

ME

Yes, I do. It’s science by stealth. Incidentally, did you see the recent Nature paper suggesting gullibility is 80% heritable?

SERIOUS SCIENTIST

No…. what just happened?

Higgs the Dog Particle
....after he finished reading Bring Back the King.
He gave it full barks out of ten. 

ME

Look, I hope this book will make people laugh. I hope it will seem inviting to people because it is a bit naughty. I hope it will inform and entertain. But I also hope that it will make people think very deeply. The book has a serious side. It talks about the current biodiversity crisis. Extinction rates are currently 1000 times higher than during pre-human times.  We’re making a big fat mess of our planet and we need to work out what to do about it. De-extinction might be part of the solution. It might not, but we need at least to get people familiar with the idea so they can talk about it and participate in decisions about what happens next.

SERIOUS SCIENTIST

And you seriously think that Elvis Presley can do that?

ME

(LIP CURLED, HIPS GYRATING) Uh-huh-huh!