TGR 08.27.18. The Real Jurassic Park

This week on The Gralien Report, we lead off with news of an unusual find off the northeast coast: a nine-foot shark that turned up dead on a beach with its face mysteriously red, shared with us by our friend Adam Olson. Then we turn our attention to news about a new quantum device that defies the concepts of ‘before’ and ‘after’, which has producer Jeremy London wondering about quantum mechanics; but everyone really knows that the way to Micah’s heart is through coffee… which is why he’s excited to hear that your coffee could soon be delivered by drones.

Also, just to make sure that we know our scientists are looking at the “real” problems, we have news that MIT mathematicians have solved an age-old spaghetti mystery, which once even stumped physicist Richard Feynman. Elsewhere in China, legends of a ‘Wild Man’ have become a booming tourist industry, while some locals believe that they’ve seen the creature and that it’s a living Chinese answer to the North American ‘Sasquatch.’ And in related anthropological news, Lauran sends us big news about the first known child of a Neandertal and a Denisovan that was recently discovered… what does this tell us about the ancient past?

Speaking of the ancient past, scientists seem to be getting closer than ever before to bringing extinct life forms back from the dead… and while the leading candidates remain megafaunal species of the last few years, could we at some point be looking at a real-life “Jurassic Park”? Some would argue that we don’t need advanced genetics to revive extinct species, and that animals similar to dinosaurs and other prehistoric species could still await discovery in the most remote corners of the world… how likely is this possibility? We look at this fascinating idea, and much more on this edition of The Gralien Report.