Tim Flannery and the Late Robyn Williams on Resurrecting Mammoths and Modifying Human Babies

From the ABC’s Science Show (the first of this year), the very silly Tim Flannery and the late Robyn Williams converse:

Tim Flannery: So if we want the Mammoth Steppe, if we want to have maximum and optimal productivity on the planet, we need to put back some large herbivores into that ecosystem.  The one that’s excellent, even to live in cold conditions, is the mammoth.  It even had a little stopper over its arsehole to stop heat escaping!   It was perfectly adapted.

the late Robyn Williams: I did not know about that stopper!  The tail goes down and it’s sort of like that and it plugs in.  We should have those for babies, shouldn’t we really!

Tim Flannery: We probably should!

the late Robyn Williams: It would be fantastic!