De-extinction firm Colossal Biosciences announced Tuesday that it was acquiring animal cloning firm Viagen. The same day, retired NFL all-star Tom Brady had a related announcement of his own. He said that he had cloned his deceased pit bull, Lua, with help from Colossal .

This has been a notable year for Colossal and its Chief Scientific Officer Beth Shapiro . The firm, co-founded by George Church and Ben Lamm, sparked controversy in the spring when it claimed successful de-extinction of dire wolves. Scientists including me pushed back, but Colossal wouldn’t back down from the claims. It all seems to come down to different definitions of de-extinction.

To me, the Colossal dire wolf announcement was perhaps an attempt by the firm to move the goalposts on what qualifies as de-extin

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