The Questioning Librarian

The past few years have seen a veritable flurry of renewed interest in the idea of bringing extinct species back into our world. Multiple books, articles, and even a few TED talks have been released, each approaching the topic from different angles, or focusing on different candidate species. One of the newest of these caught my attention, not only for its approach to the topic, but for the almost haunting art that graces its cover. Rise of the Necrofauna by Britt Wray, looks at de-extinction from perspectives that aren't heard as often in the ongoing discussion, and stands out from the others for that very reason. Wray, a science communicator, is ideally suited to the task of writing a book like this. The science of resurrecting extinct species is there, of course, but written in a way that's understandable to a non-scientist like myself. The "how" of de-extinction is fascinating, however many obstacles and improbabilities still stand in the way of bringing ba...

Everyone has their guilty pleasures, whether it is chocolate, Korean television dramas, or even Irish coffee. Among my guilty pleasures I have to include watching cheesy, truly awful science fiction "creature features." These movies are, unlike some major Hollywood films that simply come off as ridiculous, never intended to be high theater, or to be premiered at red carpet events and break box office records. These are made quickly and are generally tongue-in-cheek ridiculous the whole way through. There is just something about their terrible acting, their ridiculous plots and horrible special effects that entertain me to no end. Believe me, I enjoy good films just as much as the next, but there are some times when I just want to sit back and watch a bad movie with ice spiders , giant sharks , and prehistoric beasts . But if there is one thing I hate about bad science fiction movies it is some of the terrible, outlandish science that gets put in--and nothing raises my hackle...