Here's how they "de-extincted" a Dire Wolf
From resurrecting dire wolves with gene editing, to AI that remembers your blindspots, to a reminder that the present moment is the only one that's real - this week is about unlocking power in science, tech, and self.
Thing 1 - Here's how they "de-extincted" a Dire Wolf
Or "how to make a dire wolf (in 7 easy steps)"
Bringing back a dire wolf isn't sci-fi anymore. Here’s how it went down:
1. Find the fossils.
First, you need real dire wolf remains. You know, ancient bones, thousands of years old.
2. Extract ancient DNA.
Crush the fossils (gently!) and use specialized tools to pull out fragments of preserved DNA. Be careful, these pieces are fragile. Pretend you're trying to reassemble shredded pages of a book that's been buried for centuries.
3. Rebuild the dire wolf genome.
Now you need to know what made a dire wolf a dire wolf. Digitally stitch together those ancient fragments into a full genome… and compare it to a modern gray wolf's DNA.
4. Identify the key differences.
Scan for the "dire wolf genes" - the ones that gave it its legendary size, strength, and maybe even temperament. These are the blueprint.
5. Edit the genes.
Using CRISPR and other gene-editing tech, swap the gray wolf DNA for dire wolf DNA… one gene at a time. Do this in living cells, in the lab.
6. Build the embryo.
Take those edited cells and place them into a donor egg. A donor egg is an egg with its original DNA removed, replaced by your dire wolf genome.
7. Create life.
Implant that embryo into a surrogate mother. Let the nature take its course.
Lo and behold... You made a real, breathing, modern dire wolf.
These are the actual steps how they did it!
Here's a longer version, and you can see how cute they are as pups
Thing 2 - AI of the week
- Unitree Dex5 Dexterous Hand
- OpenAI's ChatGPT can now reference all of your past conversations to provide more personalized responses. Power move is to ask it for your blindspots and how you can improve in various areas of life.
- Amazon released Nova Act, a research preview of a new AI model for developers to build agents that take actions in web browsers
- Amazon also launched Nova Sonic speech-to-speech AI for human-like interactions. It outperforms OpenAI's voice models with ~80% lower cost
- Google Gemini made Deep Research use Gemini 2.5 Pro, their most intelligent model so far
Thing 3 - Haunted by Then. Afraid of When.
Most problems are not about the real present moment.
They’re anxiety, worried that something bad might happen in the future.
They’re trauma, remembering something bad in the past.
But none of them are real.
- Derek Sivers
This is liberating in a lot of ways once you recognize it.
You can just focus on the task at hand now.
Cheers, Zvonimir
P.S. T-rex wen?