I spent the better part of two days and nights listening to students answer questions at the Foy desk, where phones have been ringing since 1953, when James E. Foy, Auburn’s then dean of students, opened the line as a resource for students and then as a service to the public. For just as long, students who sit there have been answering any question asked of them—or at least tried their best.
By nine o’clock, the student center is quiet. That’s when people like Beulah call.
We share our homes (sometimes our beds) with them, but how much do we really know about what dogs think and feel? Whether chihuahua or husky, domestic dogs descended from wolves, but their behaviour, says Clive Wynne, psychology professor at Arizona State University and director of its Canine Science Collaboratory research lab, is “substantially different. You can tame wolves, and they can be really affectionate. But taming wolves is quite challenging, whereas taming dogs is so easy that you hardly ever talk about ‘taming’ dogs.”
If you find it difficult to think of a river as alive, try picturing a dying or dead river. This is easier. We know what this looks like. We know how it feels. A dying river is one who does not reach the sea. A dying river’s fish float belly-up in stagnant pools. Swans on the upper Thames near Windsor now wear brown tidemarks on their snowy chest feathers, showing where they have sailed through sewage. I recently saw a Southern Water riverbank sign badged with a bright blue logo that read “Water for Life”. The sign instructed passersby to “avoid contact with the water. If you’ve had contact with the water, please wash your hands before eating.” In parts of this septic isle, fresh water has become first undrinkable, then unswimmable, then untouchable.
De-extinction has been talked about for decades. But Colossal's three dire wolves – which are actually grey wolves that possess 20 edited genes that are meant to give them dire wolf-like features – represent the most serious effort to date to make that lofty vision a reality.
In the wake of the dire wolf announcement, however, many scientists have criticised Colossal's approach. They see efforts to bring back long-extinct species as costly wastes of resources and a distraction from the significant work that's needed to save still-living species.
‘I think this is as far as we can go,” I say, glancing down at the military post, barely 100 metres from the Zakagori Fortress, the forced endpoint of our day hike through the Truso valley in northern Georgia. Beyond the fortress lies disputed land, a seemingly endless expanse of yellowing pastures swelling beneath ice-capped peaks, where only a few wandering sheep dare to roam. Just beyond our line of sight is Russia.