Hendrik Poinar: Bring back the woolly mammoth!

Translator: Joseph Geni Reviewer: Morton Bast

Translator: Alisa Xholi Reviewer: Iris Xholi

When I was a young boy,

Kur isha nje djale i ri

I used to gaze through the microscope of my father

Veshtroja ngultas ne mikroskopin e babait tim

at the insects in amber that he kept in the house.

insektet ne qelibar qe ai mbante ne shtepi.

And they were remarkably well preserved,

Ato ishin te mire ruajtura mrekullisht,

morphologically just phenomenal.

morfologjikisht thjesht fenomenale.

And we used to imagine that someday,

Dhe imagjinonim se nje dite,

they would actually come to life

ato realisht do ktheheshin ne jete

and they would crawl out of the resin,

dhe do zvariteshin jashte rreshires,

and, if they could, they would fly away.

dhe, nese do mundeshin, do fluturonin.

If you had asked me 10 years ago whether or not

Nese do me pyesnit 10 vjet me pare nese

we would ever be able to sequence the genome of extinct animals,

do mund te ishim te afte te ndiqnim gjenomin e kafsheve te zhdukura

I would have told you, it's unlikely.

do ju thoja eshte e pamundur.

If you had asked whether or not we would actually be able

Nese do me pyesnit nese do ishim apo jo te afte

to revive an extinct species,

te ringjallnim nje specie te zhdukur,

I would have said, pipe dream.

do ju thoja, vazhdoni enderroni.

But I'm actually standing here today, amazingly,

Por realisht ndodhem ketu sot, mrekullisht,

to tell you that not only is the sequencing

per t'ju thene se jo vetem eshte ndjekja

of extinct genomes a possibility, actually a modern-day reality,

e gjenomit te zhdukur nje mundesi, nje realitet i dites moderne,

but the revival of an extinct species is actually within reach,

por ringjallja e specieve te zhdukura eshte aktualisht e prekshme,

maybe not from the insects in amber --

mbase jo nga insektet ne qelibar --

in fact, this mosquito was actually used

ne fakt, kjo mushkonje eshte perdorur

for the inspiration for "Jurassic Park" —

per te frymezuar "Jurassic Park"--

but from woolly mammoths, the well preserved remains

por nga mamuthet puplor, me te mirembajturit

of woolly mammoths in the permafrost.

prej tyre jane ne parangrirje.

Woollies are a particularly interesting,

Puploret jane vecanerisht interesant,

quintessential image of the Ice Age.

persosmerisht imazhi i Epokes se Akullnajave.

They were large. They were hairy.

Ata ishin te medhenj. Ata ishin leshtor.

They had large tusks, and we seem to have

Kishin catall te medhenj, dhe me sa duket

a very deep connection with them, like we do with elephants.

ne kishim nje lidhje shume te thelle me ta, ashtu sic e kemi me elefantet.

Maybe it's because elephants share

Mbase sepse elefantet ndajne

many things in common with us.

shume te perbashketa me ne.

They bury their dead. They educate the next of kin.

Ata i groposin te vdekurit e tyre. Edukojne pasuesin e fisit.

They have social knits that are very close.

Kane nderthurje sociale qe jane shume afer me tonat.

Or maybe it's actually because we're bound by deep time,

Ose mbase ndodh sepse ne jemi te lidhur thelle me kohe,

because elephants, like us, share their origins in Africa

sepse elefantet, si ne, e kane origjinen nga Afrika

some seven million years ago,

rreth shtate milion vite me pare,

and as habitats changed and environments changed,

dhe ndersa habitatet dhe mjedisi ndryshuan

we actually, like the elephants, migrated out

ne faktikisht, si dhe elefantet, migruam

into Europe and Asia.

per ne Europe dhe Azi.

So the first large mammoth that appears on the scene

Pra mamuthi i pare i madh qe shfaqet ne skene

is meridionalis, which was standing four meters tall

eshte meridionalis, i cili ishte kater metra i gjate

weighing about 10 tons, and was a woodland-adapted species

me pesh rreth 10ton, dhe ishte nje specie e pershtatur ne pyll

and spread from Western Europe clear across Central Asia,

dhe shtrihej qe nga Europa Perendimore deri ne Azine qendrore,

across the Bering land bridge

permes ures tokesore Bering

and into parts of North America.

dhe ne disa pjese te Amerikes Veriore.

And then, again, as climate changed as it always does,

Dhe me pas, perseri, ndersa klima ndryshoi sikurse ndryshon gjithmone,

and new habitats opened up,

dhe vendbanime te tjera u hapen,

we had the arrival of a steppe-adapted species

kishim mberritjen e specieve pershtatur-stepesh

called trogontherii in Central Asia

te quajtur trongotherii ne Azine Qendrore

pushing meridionalis out into Western Europe.

duke i spostuar meridionalis ne Europen Perendimore.

And the open grassland savannas of North America

Dhe tokat barore (savanat) e Amerikes Veriore

opened up, leading to the Columbian mammoth,

u hapen, duke na sjell mamuthin Kolumbian,

a large, hairless species in North America.

nje specie e madhe, leshtore ne Ameriken Veriore.

And it was really only about 500,000 years later

Dhe ishte rreth 500.000 viteve me vone

that we had the arrival of the woolly,

qe ne kishim mberritjen e puploreve,

the one that we all know and love so much,

ai qe ne te gjithe njohim dhe e duam kaq shume,

spreading from an East Beringian point of origin

duke u perhapur nga Beringiani Lindor

across Central Asia, again pushing the trogontherii

deri ne Azin Qendore, serish duke e shtyre trogontheriin

out through Central Europe,

jashte neper Europen Qendrore,

and over hundreds of thousands of years

dhe per qindra mijera vite

migrating back and forth across the Bering land bridge

duke migruar poshte e larte neper uren tokesore te Bering,

during times of glacial peaks

gjate kohes se kulmit te akullt,

and coming into direct contact

dhe duke ardhur ne kontakt te drejtperdrejte

with the Columbian relatives living in the south,

me farefisin Kolumbian qe jetonte ne jug,

and there they survive over hundreds of thousands of years

dhe aty ata mbijetuan per qindra mijera vite

during traumatic climatic shifts.

gjate ndryshimeve traumatike te klimes.

So there's a highly plastic animal dealing with great transitions

Pra ekziton nje kafshe shume plastike e cila ka kaluar tranzicione te medha

in temperature and environment, and doing very, very well.

si ne temperatura ashtu dhe mjedis, dhe ja ka dal shume mire.

And there they survive on the mainland until about 10,000 years ago,

Dhe ne ate kontinent ata mbijetojne deri para 10.000 viteve,

and actually, surprisingly, on the small islands off of Siberia

dhe suprizisht, ne ishujt e vegjel ne dalje te Siberise

and Alaska until about 3,000 years ago.

dhe Alaskes deri para 3.000 viteve.

So Egyptians are building pyramids

Pra Egjiptianet po ndertojne piramidat

and woollies are still living on islands.

dhe puploret jetojne akoma neper ishuj.

And then they disappear.

Dhe me pas ata zhduken.

Like 99 percent of all the animals that have once lived,

Si 99 perqind e te gjitha kafsheve qe kane jetuar ndonjehere here

they go extinct, likely due to a warming climate

ata zhduken, me shume mundesi prej ngrohjes se klimes

and fast-encroaching dense forests

dhe shpyllezimin e pyjeve te dendur

that are migrating north,

qe po migrojne ne veri,

and also, as the late, great Paul Martin once put it,

dhe gjithashtu, sikurse ka thene nje here madhi Paul Martin,

probably Pleistocene overkill,

me shume gjasa, vrasja ne mase e Pleistocene

so the large game hunters that took them down.

kane qene gjahtaret e kafsheve te medha qe i kane eleminuar.

Fortunately, we find millions of their remains

Fatmiresisht, ne gjetem miliona mbetje te tyre

strewn across the permafrost buried deep

te shperndara neper ngrirje te thelle-groposura

in Siberia and Alaska, and we can actually go up there

ne Siberi dhe Alaske, dhe mund te shkojme atje

and actually take them out.

dhe realisht ti marrim.

And the preservation is, again,

Dhe ruajtja eshte, perseri,

like those insects in [amber], phenomenal.

si ato insektet ne (qelibar), fenomenale.

So you have teeth, bones with blood

Pra kemi dhembe, kocka me gjak

which look like blood, you have hair,

i cili ngjasonte me gjak, kemi flok,

and you have intact carcasses or heads

kemi kufoma te paprekura ose koke

which still have brains in them.

te cilat kane akoma tru brenda tyre.

So the preservation and the survival of DNA

Pra ruajtja dhe mbijetesa e ADN-se

depends on many factors, and I have to admit,

varet nga shume faktor, dhe me duhet ta pranoj,

most of which we still don't quite understand,

shumicen e tyre ne nuk i kuptojme akoma,

but depending upon when an organism dies

por ne varesi te momentit kur nje organizem shuhet

and how quickly he's buried, the depth of that burial,

dhe sa shpejt ai varroset, thellesia e asaj groposje,

the constancy of the temperature of that burial environment,

qendrueshmeria ne temperaturen e atij mjedisi groposjeje

will ultimately dictate how long DNA will survive

do diktoje perfundimisht se sa gjate do mbijetoje ADN-ja

over geologically meaningful time frames.

mbi kornizat gjeologjikisht kuptimplota te kohes.

And it's probably surprising to many of you

Dhe me shume gjasa eshte suprize per shume nga ju

sitting in this room that it's not the time that matters,

qe qendroni sot ne kete salle, qe nuk eshte koha ajo qe ka rendesi,

it's not the length of preservation,

nuk eshte kohezgjatia e ruajtjes,

it's the consistency of the temperature of that preservation that matters most.

eshte qendrueshmeria e temperatures se asaj ruajtje qe ka me shume rendesi.

So if we were to go deep now within the bones

Pra nese do shkonim thelle brenda kockave

and the teeth that actually survived the fossilization process,

dhe dhembeve qe realisht i mbijetuan procesit te fosilizimit,

the DNA which was once intact, tightly wrapped

ADN-ja qe njehere ishte e paprekur, e mbeshtjellur fort

around histone proteins, is now under attack

perreth proteinave te kromatines, eshte tashme ne sulme

by the bacteria that lived symbiotically with the mammoth

nga bakterjet qe bashkejetonin me mamuthin

for years during its lifetime.

per vite gjate jeteses se tij.

So those bacteria, along with the environmental bacteria,

Pra ato baktere, sebashku me bakteret e mjedisit,

free water and oxygen, actually break apart the DNA

pa uje dhe oksigjen, ne te vertete e ndajne ADN-ne

into smaller and smaller and smaller DNA fragments,

ne fragmente ADN-je shume te vogla

until all you have are fragments that range

deri sa te kesh fragmente qe shtrihen,

from 10 base pairs to, in the best case scenarios,

ne cifte 10-she, ne rastine me te mire,

a few hundred base pairs in length.

ne pak qindra cifte baze ne gjatesi.

So most fossils out there in the fossil record

Pra shumica e fosileve ne regjistrin e fosileve

are actually completely devoid of all organic signatures.

jane ne te vertete totalisht te lira nga te gjitha shenjat organike.

But a few of them actually have DNA fragments

Por shume pak nga ato kane fragmente te ADN-se

that survive for thousands,

qe mbijetojne per mijera,

even a few millions of years in time.

madje pak milion vite ne kohe.

And using state-of-the-art clean room technology,

Dhe duke perdorur teknologjine me te fundit te zvhillimit,

we've devised ways that we can actually pull these DNAs

kemi shpikur menyra qe mund te ndajme ne te vertete keto ADN

away from all the rest of the gunk in there,

larg nga pjesa tjeter e ngatarruar aty brenda,

and it's not surprising to any of you sitting in the room

dhe nuk eshte aspak suprize per ju qe ndodheni ne kete salle

that if I take a mammoth bone or a tooth

qe nese marr nje kocke ose dhembe mamuthi

and I extract its DNA that I'll get mammoth DNA,

dhe i shkepus ADN-ne atehere do marr jo vetem ADN-ne e mamuthit,

but I'll also get all the bacteria that once lived with the mammoth,

por gjithashtu edhe te gjitha bakteret qe kane jetuar dikur me mamuthin,

and, more complicated, I'll get all the DNA

edhe me e komplikuar, do marr te gjithe ADN-ne

that survived in that environment with it,

qe mbijetoi ne ate mjedis me ate,

so the bacteria, the fungi, and so on and so forth.

bakteret, qelizat dhe te tjera.

Not surprising then again that a mammoth

Aspak suprizuese atehere qe nje mamuth

preserved in the permafrost will have something

i ruajtur ne parangrirje do kete dicka

on the order of 50 percent of its DNA being mammoth,

ne rangun 50 per qind te ADN-se se qenies se mamuthit,

whereas something like the Columbian mammoth,

ndersa dicka si mamuthi Kolumbian,

living in a temperature and buried in a temperate environment

qe jeton ne temperatura dhe ne nje mjedis te permbajtur

over its laying-in will only have 3 to 10 percent endogenous.

mbi shtresen e tij, do kete vetem 3 deri ne 10 perqind endogjen.

But we've come up with very clever ways

Por kemi zbuluar disa ide shume te zgjuara

that we can actually discriminate, capture and discriminate,

qe realisht ne mundemi te kapim dhe nxjerrim

the mammoth from the non-mammoth DNA,

mamuthin nga nje ADN-ne jo e mamuthit,

and with the advances in high-throughput sequencing,

dhe me avantazhin e sekuencave te analizes se larte,

we can actually pull out and bioinformatically

mund te nxjerrim dhe ne menyre bioinfomatikuese

re-jig all these small mammoth fragments

te riprodhojme fragmentet e vogla te mamuthit

and place them onto a backbone

dhe ti vendosim ne nje kocke shpine

of an Asian or African elephant chromosome.

ne kromozonin e nje elefanti Aziatik ose Afrikan.

And so by doing that, we can actually get all the little points

Dhe duke bere kete, realisht mund te marim pikat e vogla

that discriminate between a mammoth and an Asian elephant,

qe dallojne ndermjet nje mamuthi dhe nje elefanti Aziatik,

and what do we know, then, about a mammoth?

atehere, cfare dime ne per nje mamuth?

Well, the mammoth genome is almost at full completion,

Gjenomi i mamuthit eshte pothuajse ne permbushje,

and we know that it's actually really big. It's mammoth.

dhe realisht e dime qe eshte shume a madhe. Eshte mamuth.

So a hominid genome is about three billion base pairs,

Pra gjenomi njerezor eshte rreth tre miliarde cifte baze,

but an elephant and mammoth genome

por gjenomi i nje elefanti dhe i mamuthit

is about two billion base pairs larger, and most of that

eshte rreth dy miliarde cifte baze me i madh, dhe me e rendesishmja

is composed of small, repetitive DNAs

eshte e perbere nga ADN me te vogla te perseritura

that make it very difficult to actually re-jig the entire structure of the genome.

e cila e ben shume te veshtire rigjenerimin e struktures totale te gjenomit.

So having this information allows us to answer

Pra, duke pasur kete informacion na lejon ti pergjigjemi

one of the interesting relationship questions

nje prej pyetjeve interesante mbi lidhjen

between mammoths and their living relatives,

ndermjet mamuthit dhe fisit te tij ekzistues,

the African and the Asian elephant,

elefantin Afrikan dhe Aziatik,

all of which shared an ancestor seven million years ago,

te cilet ndanin te njejtin stergjysh shtate milion vite me pare,

but the genome of the mammoth shows it to share

por gjenomi i mamuthit tregon ndarjen

a most recent common ancestor with Asian elephants

e nje stergjyshi me te vonshem te berbashket me elefantet Aziatik

about six million years ago,

rreth gjashte milion vite me pare,

so slightly closer to the Asian elephant.

shume i afert me elefenatin Aziatik.

With advances in ancient DNA technology,

Me perparimet ne teknologjine e ADN-se

we can actually now start to begin to sequence

aktualisht mund te fillojme te rendisim

the genomes of those other extinct mammoth forms that I mentioned,

gjenomet e atyre mamutheve qe une permenda,

and I just wanted to talk about two of them,

dhe ne fakt une doja te flija per dy nga ato,

the woolly and the Columbian mammoth,

puplorin dhe mamuthin Kolumbian,

both of which were living very close to each other

te cilet qe te dy jetonin shume afer njeri tjetrit

during glacial peaks,

gjate kulmit te akullnajave,

so when the glaciers were massive in North America,

dhe kur akullnajat ishin masive ne Ameriken Veriore,

the woollies were pushed into these subglacial ecotones,

puploret u shtyne ne nje rajon tranzicioni nenakujsh,

and came into contact with the relatives living to the south,

dhe erdhen ne kontakt me fisin e tyre i cili jetonte ne jug,

and there they shared refugia,

aty ndane strehat,

and a little bit more than the refugia, it turns out.

dhe sic rezulton dicka me shume se vetem strehat.

It looks like they were interbreeding.

Me sa duket ata u shumuan mes tyre.

And that this is not an uncommon feature

Dhe kjo nuk ishte nje vecori e rralle

in Proboscideans, because it turns out

ne Proboscideans, sepse rezulton

that large savanna male elephants will outcompete

se meshkujt elefant te savanave do jene me te afte

the smaller forest elephants for their females.

me femrat se sa elefantet e vegjel pyjor.

So large, hairless Columbians

Pra, Kolumbianet e medhenj pa push

outcompeting the smaller male woollies.

tejkaluan meshkujt puploret te vegjel.

It reminds me a bit of high school, unfortunately.

Me kujton pak gjimnazin, fatkeqesisht.

(Laughter)

(Te qeshura)

So this is not trivial, given the idea that we want

Kjo nuk eshte e parendesishme, me iden qe duam

to revive extinct species, because it turns out

te ringjallim speciet e zhdukura, se rezulton

that an African and an Asian elephant

qe nje elefant Afrikan dhe Aziatik

can actually interbreed and have live young,

mund te shumohen dhe te sjellin ne jete te rinj,

and this has actually occurred by accident in a zoo

dhe kjo ka ndodhur aksidentalisht ne nje kopsht zoologjik

in Chester, U.K., in 1978.

ne Chester, U.K., ne 1978.

So that means that we can actually take Asian elephant chromosomes,

Kjo do te thote se ne realisht mund te marim kromozonin e nje elefanti Aziatik

modify them into all those positions we've actually now

ta modifikojme ne keto menyra sic e kemi bere aktualisht

been able to discriminate with the mammoth genome,

te mundemi ta ndajme me gjenomin e mamuthit,

we can put that into an enucleated cell,

ta vendosim ne nje qelize te cberthamuar,

differentiate that into a stem cell,

ta modifikojme ne nje qelize burimi,

subsequently differentiate that maybe into a sperm,

me pas ta modifikojme mbase ne nje sperm,

artificially inseminate an Asian elephant egg,

artificalisht te plenojme nje veze elefanti Aziatik,

and over a long and arduous procedure,

dhe pas nje procedure te gjate dhe te lodhshme,

actually bring back something that looks like this.

mund te sjellim dicka qe ngjan si kjo.

Now, this wouldn't be an exact replica,

Ne rregull, kjo mbase nuk mund te jete kopja ekzakte

because the short DNA fragments that I told you about

sepse ato fragmentet e shkurta te ADN-se qe ju permenda

will prevent us from building the exact structure,

do na pengojne te ndertojme strukturen ekzakte,

but it would make something that looked and felt

por do bente dicka qe do ngjasonte

very much like a woolly mammoth did.

shume me nje mamuth puplor.

Now, when I bring up this with my friends,

Kur e permend kete me miqte e mi,

we often talk about, well, where would you put it?

ne shpesh diskutojme, ne rregull, por ku do e vendosesh?

Where are you going to house a mammoth?

Ku do te strehosh nje mamuth?

There's no climates or habitats suitable.

Nuk ka klime dhe vendbanim te pershtatshme.

Well, that's not actually the case.

Faktikisht, nuk eshte kjo ceshtja.

It turns out that there are swaths of habitat

Rezulton se ka disa vende te kopsitura vendbanimi

in the north of Siberia and Yukon

ne veri te Siberise dhe Yukon

that actually could house a mammoth.

qe realisht mund te strehojne nje mamuth.

Remember, this was a highly plastic animal

Kujtoni, kjo ishte nje kafshe shume elastike

that lived over tremendous climate variation.

qe ka jetuar neper ndryshime te tmerrshme klime.

So this landscape would be easily able to house it,

Pra kjo toke mund te strehoje shume lehte ate,

and I have to admit that there [is] a part of the child in me,

dhe me duhet te pranoj se nuk eshte pjesa e femijes brenda meje,

the boy in me, that would love to see

djali brenda meje, qe do deshironte te shikonte

these majestic creatures walk across the permafrost

keto krijesa madheshtore duke ecur pertej

of the north once again, but I do have to admit

veriut edhe nje here, por me duhet te pranoj

that part of the adult in me sometimes wonders

se pjesa e te rriturit brenda meje disa here pyet veten

whether or not we should.

nese duhet apo jo.

Thank you very much.

Ju faleminderit shume.

(Applause)

(Duartrokitje)

Ryan Phelan: Don't go away.

Ryan Phelan: Mos u largo.

You've left us with a question.

Na le me nje pyetje.

I'm sure everyone is asking this. When you say, "Should we?"

Jam i sigurte qe te gjithe jane duke pyetur. Kur thua "Duhet?"

it feels like you're reticent there,

Duket sikur je i permbajtur aty,

and yet you've given us a vision of it being so possible.

por nderkohe na dhe vizionin qe kjo mund te jete e mundur.

What's your reticence?

Ku qendron heshtja jote?

Hendrik Poinar: I don't think it's reticence.

Hendrik Poinar: Nuk mendoj se eshte heshtje.

I think it's just that we have to think very deeply

Une thjesht mendoj se duhet te mendojme thelle

about the implications, ramifications of our actions,

implikimet, degezimet e veprave tona,

and so as long as we have good, deep discussion

dhe per sa kohe kemi nje diskutim te mirefillte

like we're having now, I think

si ky i tanishmi, une mendoj

we can come to a very good solution as to why to do it.

se ne mund te gjejme nje zgjidhje shume te mire se pse duhet ta bejme.

But I just want to make sure that we spend time

Por une dua te sigurohem qe ne te kalojme kohe

thinking about why we're doing it first.

duke menduar se pse po e bejme fillimisht.

RP: Perfect. Perfect answer. Thank you very much, Hendrik.

RP: Perfekte. Pergjigje perfekte. Te falenderoj Hendrik.

HP: Thank you. (Applause)

HP. Faleminderit. (Duartrokitje)