In other words, Colossal seems to have solved a problem I no longer have (since I’m now a journalist) but is likely still an issue for biologists. However, the company did so purely as a necessary step for one of its de-extinction projects.
Not all eggs are created equal
Why does it need to externalize the contents of eggs? It comes back to two of its planned de-extinctions, the dodo and the moa. Both of these species are far, far larger than the nearest related species. In the moa’s case, it’s far larger than any existing birds. If you want to make something that big, then there’s simply no way of taking an egg from an existing species and putting a moa embryo in it. So, one of Colossal’s next steps will be to see if it can supplement an egg—do things like add enough nutrients to the yolk to support the growth of a larger embryo.
This likely can’t be done before the embryo is in place, as simply pumping more material into the yolk would likely cause the membrane enclosing it to burst. Instead, they’re likely to have to add or exchange material as the embryo is developing.
The other issue they’ll have to contend with is the fact that embryonic development starts while the egg is still inside its parent. So the team will have two choices. One option is that they will need to figure out how to get the first half day or so of development to proceed without an egg, and then transfer that growing embryo into an egg. The alternative is that they’ll have to figure out how to fertilize eggs after their contents have been transferred to this device.
But some of those are challenges specific to de-extinction. For any researchers who think this could benefit their work, the company would be happy to hear from you. “I believe there will be labs that want to use this just for research purposes, which is awesome,” Lamm told Ars. “And by the way, we’re not going to charge for that. We’re going to just give it away.”