Technologies

CRISPR startup wants to resurrect the woolly mammoth by 2027

Colossal has landed $15m in funding to restore the woolly mammoth to the Arctic — and it thinks it can birth calves in four to six years.

You’ve heard of startups building computer chips, delivery drones and social networks. One called Colossal has a very different goal: bringing the woolly mammoth back from extinction by 2027 using CRISPR, a revolutionary gene editing technology.

The plan isn’t to re-create true woolly mammoths exactly but rather to bring their cold-adapted genetic traits like small ears and more body fat to their elephant cousins, creating a hybrid that can wander the tundra where mammoths haven’t been seen for 10,000 years. Colossal’s co-founders are Chief Executive Ben Lamm, who started five companies before this, and George Church, a Harvard Medical School professor with deep CRISPR expertise.

«Our true North Star is a successful restoration of the woolly mammoth, but also its successful rewilding into interbreeding herds in the Arctic,» Lamm said. «We’re now focusing on having our first calves in the next four to six years.»

It’s an interesting illustration of an imperative sweeping the tech world: Don’t just make money, help the planet too. Tesla’s mission is to electrify transport to get rid of fossil fuels that hurt Earth. Bolt Threads wants to replace leather with a fungal fiber-based equivalent that’s easier on the environment than animal agriculture. Colossal hopes its work will draw attention to biodiversity problems and ultimately help fix them.

Colossal has raised $15 million so far, led by investment firm Tulco. The startup’s 19 employees work at its Dallas headquarters and in offices in Boston and Austin, Texas, and it’s using its funds to hire more.

Artificial wombs and other technology spinoffs

Church said he expects spinoffs from the company’s biotechnology and genetics work.

«The pipeline of large scale genome engineering techniques can be applied to many other applications beyond de-extinction, and therefore [are] most promising for commercialization,» he said.

One technology ripe for commercialization is multiplex genome engineering, a technique Church helped develop that speeds genetic editing by making multiple changes to DNA at once.

Colossal also hopes to develop artificial wombs to grow its mammoth embryos. Just growing 10 woolly mammoths with surrogate elephant mothers isn’t enough to get to the large-scale herds the company envisions.

At the foundation of Colossal’s work is CRISPR. This technology, adapted from a method bacteria evolved to identify attacking viruses and chop up their DNA, is now a mainstay of genetic engineering, and Church has been involved since CRISPR’s earliest days.

Jurassic Park-style tourism? Nope

Selling or licensing spinoff technology is a somewhat indirect way of running a business. A more direct option is selling tickets to tourists. After all, humans already pay lots of money to see charismatic megafauna like lions, elephants and giraffes on African safaris. Seeing a creature that’s been gone for 10,000 years could add to the excitement.

But that’s not Colossal’s game plan. «Our focus is on species preservation and protection of biodiversity right now, not in putting them in zoos,» Lamm said. By re-creating woolly mammoths, Colossal can preserve the genetic legacy of Asian elephants that now are endangered.

Another candidate species Colossal wants to re-create is the woolly rhinoceros, a relative to the critically endangered Sumatran rhino.

Although Colossal doesn’t plan to build a tourist destination, it does have a woolly mammoth rewilding site in mind that sounds awfully close to Jurassic Park: Pleistocene Park. This area of about 60 square miles in northern Russia, named after the geologic period that ended with the last ice age, is where researchers Sergey and Nikita Zimov are trying to test their theories about the ecological and climatic effects of rewilding.

One Zimov idea is that woolly mammoths will trample snow and knock down trees. That, in turn, will restore grasslands that reflect more of the sun’s warming rays and eliminate insulating snow and forests so the ground cools more. And that means the ground will stay frozen instead of releasing its current store of carbon dioxide and methane greenhouse gases. About 260 billion to 300 billion metric tons of carbon could be released from thawing permafrost by 2300, scientists calculate, exacerbating the weather extremes and other problems caused by climate change.

Is species de-extinction a good idea?

There’s an appeal to the idea of de-extinction. Humans have dramatically altered the planet, and the United Nations estimates we threaten 1 million species with extinction as a result.

Colossal hopes its work will raise more attention to the biodiversity collapse. And it also plans to create detailed genetic descriptions of many endangered species «so we have the recipe if that species does go extinct,» Lamm said.

But is that really the best use of our resources to help the planet? No, some researchers believe.

Resurrecting species could have some benefits, but money would be better spent on trying to protect ones that are still around, a group of biologists argued in one paper published in Nature Ecology & Evolution. «Potential sacrifices in conservation of extant species should be a crucial consideration in deciding whether to invest in de-extinction or focus our efforts on extant species,» the researchers wrote.

But this isn’t government money Colossal is talking about, and Lamm argues that his startup’s work complements other conservation efforts. And, he argues, startups can move faster than government-funded work.

In a world dominated by climate crisis headlines, a startup that makes money with an ecosystem-improvement focus has special appeal. One investor, Zack Lynch of Jazz Venture Partners, is excited by software, hardware and biotech he expects Colossal will create.

At the same time, «these breakthroughs will help address issues such as land degradation, animal pollinator loss and other negative biodiversity trends,» Lynch said. Given how big our environmental problems are, you can see why an investor might be interested.

Technologies

Amazon Prime’s $2.5 FTC Settlement: Learn Who’s Eligible and How Much Payouts Will Be

The online retail giant will soon begin paying misled customers who subscribed to Amazon Prime.

If you thought your Amazon Prime signup process was a little confusing, it’s not just you. The Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against Amazon in 2023, alleging that the retail giant misled customers in marketing Prime subscriptions to its customers. In September, Amazon agreed to pay a $2.5 billion settlement, one of the largest in US history.

The FTC said $1.5 billion will go into a fund to repay eligible subscribers, with the remaining $1 billion collected as a civil penalty. And while Amazon did not admit to wrongdoing, it’s still making changes to how it presents the service. The settlement requires Amazon to add a «clear and conspicuous» option to decline Prime during checkout and to simplify the cancellation process.

«Amazon and our executives have always followed the law, and this settlement allows us to move forward and focus on innovating for customers,» Mark Blafkin, Amazon senior manager, said in a statement. «We work incredibly hard to make it clear and simple for customers to both sign up or cancel their Prime membership, and to offer substantial value for our many millions of loyal Prime members around the world.»

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Why did the FTC file a lawsuit against Amazon?

The FTC filed suit against Amazon accused the company of using «dark patterns» to nudge people into Prime subscriptions and then making it too hard to cancel. The FTC maintained Amazon was in violation of Section 5 of the FTC Act and the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act.

«Specifically, Amazon used manipulative, coercive or deceptive user-interface designs known as ‘dark patterns’ to trick consumers into enrolling in automatically renewing Prime subscriptions,» the FTC complaint states.

Who’s eligible for Amazon’s payout?

Amazon’s legal settlement is limited to customers who enrolled in Amazon Prime between June 23, 2019, and June 23, 2025. It’s also restricted to customers who subscribed to Prime using a «challenged enrollment flow» or who enrolled in Prime through any method but were unsuccessful in canceling their memberships.

The FTC called out specific enrollment pages, including Prime Video enrollment, the Universal Prime Decision page, the Shipping Option Select page and the Single Page Checkout. To qualify for a payout, claimants must also not have used more than 10 Amazon Prime benefits in any 12-month period.

Customers who signed up via those challenged processes and did not use more than three Prime benefits within one year will be paid automatically by Amazon within 90 days. Other eligible Amazon customers will need to file a claim, and Amazon is required to send notices to those people within 30 days of making its automatic payments.

Customers who did not use a challenged sign-up process but instead were unable to cancel their memberships will also need to file claims for payment.

How big will the Amazon payments be?

Payouts to eligible Amazon claimants will be limited to a maximum of $51. That amount could be reduced depending on the number of Amazon Prime benefits you used while subscribed to the service. Those benefits include free two-day shipping, watching shows or movies on Prime Video or Whole Foods grocery discounts.

Customers who qualify for the payments should receive them by Dec. 24.Customers outside the US aren’t eligible for the payout.

Technologies

These Already Affordable ANC OneOdio Headphones Are Even Better at $26 Off

They’re one of our favorite noise-canceling pairs for less than $100, and you can snag some for a record-low $64 right now.

Though you could easily drop $300 or even more, you don’t need to spend a fortune to get yourself a decent pair of headphones these days. There are some excellent budget-friendly options out there that still have plenty to offer, and right now you can snag one of our favorite pairs of 2025 for even less. Amazon has knocked $26 off the OneOdio A10s, which brings them down to a record-low $64. Though this deal could expire at any time, so be sure to get your order in soon.

These over-ear OneOdio headphones earned a spot on our list of the best noise-canceling pairs under $100 thanks to their sturdy design and superior comfort. According to CNET audio expert David Carnoy, they also «sound surprisingly decent and have reasonably good noise canceling with a transparency mode.» Plus, they boast an impressive 50-hour battery life and have a 3.5mm aux port for wired listening as well.

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Why this deal matters

Having earned a spot on our list of the best budget noise-canceling headphones, the OneOdio A10s are already a decent value at full price. So a chance to grab a pair on sale — let alone for a record-low price — is a serious bargain. They have a sturdy design, impressive sound and decent noise-canceling capabilities, which is a solid set of features for less than $70.

Though there are plenty of other excellent headphone deals available now, if you’re on the hunt for a different pair.

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Technologies

How President Jimmy Carter Slayed a Dragon and Is Helping to Eradicate an Ancient Disease

President Jimmy Carter, the Carter Center and LifeStraw have waged a war against Guinea Worm disease since 1986. We’re now closer than ever to completely eradicating an ancient disease from the planet.

Maybe you’ve used a LifeStraw to safely drink water from a stream while camping, or maybe you have one in your home to filter your drinking water. But did you know that the company behind this popular water filtration technology is close to completely eradicating an ancient disease from the planet?

For thousands of years, Guinea Worm or Dracunculiasis has plagued the continents of Africa and Asia, debilitating its victims and causing incredible pain and suffering. The disease stems from bad drinking water that contains Guinea Worm larvae, which for generations has been unwittingly ingested by humans. Once the Guinea Worm reaches maturity inside its host, the tapeworm bores its way out of the body, usually through the lower extremities. It’s a process that causes incredible pain and discomfort.

The battle against Guinea Worm is the focus of a new documentary by The Carter Center and Buffalo 8. The President and the Dragon — now playing on Amazon Prime Video, Hoopla and Verizon Fios — illustrates the struggles faced by President Jimmy Carter and the Carter Center in their fight to eradicate Guinea Worm. Carter ran a campaign in motion that used education, technology, surveillance, and a coalition of scientists and volunteers. The goal was to decrease the number of cases of Guinea Worm from 3.5 million victims a year in the 1990s to just 15 cases in 2024.

If the Guinea Worm Eradication program is successful, Guinea Worm will be the second disease ever eradicated from planet Earth. Smallpox, the first, was declared eradicated by the World Health Organization in 1980. What’s even more remarkable about this accomplishment is that the disease would be eradicated without the use of a vaccine or medicine.

I traveled to The Carter Center in Atlanta for a screening of Carter’s new documentary. I also interviewed Allison Hill, LifeStraw CEO, and Adam Weiss, the director of the Guinea Worm Eradication Program, about their work to eradicate the disease. You can watch the video to learn more about the documentary and the fight against Guinea Worm. Watch the trailer for The President and the Dragon below.