Why the dire wolf de-extinction claims are the tip of the iceberg

“I trust people who are wealthy,” said a participant in a focus group that a colleague and I recently ran to understand how people place trust. This was, to me, a surprising response – but on reflection, and following reactions to recent headlines, I think it speaks to something real about the priorities people have today.

News last week that the genetic-engineering start-up Colossal Biosciences had “resurrected” the long-extinct dire wolf is evidence of this trend. The private company, which is valued at over $10 billion, claims that, after…