Mammoth 2.0: Recombinant time from tundra to biotech

Abstract

Based on multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the Russian Arctic and the United States, this article examines de-extinction—the technoscientific effort to recreate extinct species through genetic engineering. Focusing on attempts to create the so-called Arctic elephant, I follow preserved mammoth tissue, shifting scientific narratives, and flows of capital across cryogenic storage sites, biotech labs, and Arctic landscapes. These trajectories reveal how de-extinction goes beyond its aim to “reverse” extinction, reworking time itself as an experimental material. Cryopreservation halts decay; cellular reprogramming resets cells to an earlier state; genome editing reconstructs evolutionary sequences. In this process, time becomes not a backdrop to life but something open to redesign—manipulated, modified, suspended, or simply taken off the table. De-extinction projects treat extinction as an interval rather than an end, transforming biological past into a platform for speculative engineering. The article contributes to anthropological debates on death, time, and technoscientific imagination.