De-extinction isn't just bringing back woolly mammoths and dodo birds—it's developing genetic tools to save endangered species alive today. Dr. Beth Shapiro explains how ancient DNA, synthetic biology, and ecosystem thinking are reshaping conservation, human genetics, and what it means to engineer life responsibly. Woolly mammoths and Asian elephants share 99% genomic similarity; de-extinction focuses on the specific genetic variants that make a mammoth adapted to cold habitats, not recreating an identical historical individual.