Colossal Biosciences has hatched 26 chickens out of a 3D printed lattice, which is a sentence I have to keep rereading because the chicken already had a working delivery system. It was the egg. We've had it for a while.
CEO Ben Lamm says the goal is to eventually grow a South Island giant moa, a 12-foot bird that's been gone for roughly 600 years and would presumably be thrilled to wake up in suburban Auckland. Moa eggs are 80 times the size of a chicken's, which Lamm framed as an engineering challenge rather than a hint.
The lattice mimics an eggshell. The scientists then poured in calcium, because the shell normally does that, and added the membrane bits, because the shell normally does that too. Evolutionary biologist Vincent Lynch of the University at Buffalo pointed out this makes it an artificial eggshell, not an artificial egg. I respect the pedantry. It's the only load-bearing thing in the article.
The Mid-Continental Bureau of Redundant Invention estimates 71.3% of the project's budget went toward rebuilding features already present in a $0.34 egg from Kroger. I won't see the moa hatch, but neither will anyone reading this, so we're even.
Bioethicist Arthur Caplan asked the unfun question: where does a resurrected giant bird live. New Zealand is currently full of New Zealand.
Based on the original article "De-Extinction Company Says It's Hatched Chicks From Artificial Eggshells".
