photo by Catherine Borgeson Visitors to The Interval can now view two stunning passenger pigeon specimens on loan from the Royal Ontario Museum. The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) houses the world’s largest collection of passenger pigeons. These specimens showcase the species’ unique male and female coloration and beauty. The passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) once lived…  Read More

On October 3rd 02014, Stewart Brand delivered the keynote address for the Evernote EC4 conference. Evernote is a service that allows people to collect information, notes, bookmarks, and create a personal searchable database with this collection. Phil Libin, CEO of Evernote, has been a fan of Long Now for years, which inspired him to introduce a “100-year…  Read More

On Thursday, September 18th, Ryan Phelan and Stewart Brand will be giving an update on the Revive & Restore project at the Commonwealth Club of California. The talk will explore the flagship project of Revive, The Great Passenger Pigeon Comeback, as well as several other projects that have come to fruition since Stewart gave his…  Read More

Evolution is a diligent innovator and the diversity it has achieved offers the curious seemingly unending marvels. In some cases, though, a particular innovation might not make much sense on initial consideration. In those cases, zooming out in time can be instructive. Whit Bronaugh, writing for American Forests, demonstrates this using the concept of ecological…  Read More

In May 02013 Stewart Brand discussed De-extinction and one of Long Now’s latest projects Revive and Restore. Bringing back extinct species is a scientific pursuit that is loaded with both cultural and environmental significance. Revive and Restore is galvanizing discussion amongst the general public as well as the academic community around these efforts and funding…  Read More

Revive & Restore’s passenger pigeon expert, Ben Novak, has been working for months to gather samples of DNA from 77 specimens of the extinct bird. Our first glimpses of data confirmed that the samples would be able to provide the DNA needed for a full genome sequence, but as we delved into the work, the…  Read More

There’s an upper limit to how long DNA can last due to the way it decays – dinosaurs, for instance, lived far too long ago for their DNA to still be readable – but scientists recently recovered and sequenced a genome 10 times older than the previous oldest. The genetic material comes from a horse that…  Read More

Though the Arctic can seem like one of the most inhospitable regions of our planet, it provides unique opportunities to scientists seeking to understand life and its many manifestations. Recent examples of this in the news include the story of a frozen Mammoth carcass found to contain preserved blood and muscle tissue, and a report…  Read More

“Reviving Extinct Species” Tuesday May 21st, 02013 at the SFJAZZ Center, San Francisco From promoting the publication of NASA’s first satellite images of the whole Earth to co-founding The Long Now Foundation, Stewart Brand has always sought to simultaneously humble and empower. Our planet, seen for the first time against the vastness of space, suddenly…  Read More

This Friday, March 15th, Long Now’s Revive & Restore project, in partnership with the National Geographic Society, are hosting TEDxDeExtinction, an independently organized TED event. To be held at National Geographic’s headquarters in Washington, DC, the event will feature 25 talks about the emerging science of de-extinction. Speakers include practitioners in the field of molecular biology…  Read More