Dire wolves went extinct around 12,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age. Weighing around 150 pounds, they were about twice the size of today's gray wolves. Dire wolves roamed both North and South America, preying on ancient horses, camels, sloths, and bison.

Scientists are playing God once again, and although they may have recently achieved something admittedly cool, it’s all but doomed to backfire in the worst possible ways.

Biotech company Colossal Biosciences announced Monday that they have revived an extinct dire wolf species using “meticulously reconstructed” DNA from fossils that date back to 11,500 and 72,000 years. The company is calling the two wolves, aptly named Remus and Romulus in a nod to the myth of ancient Rome’s origins, the world’s first “de-extinct animals.” 

Romulus and Remus are doing what puppies do: chasing, tussling, nipping, nuzzling. But there’s something very un-puppylike about the snowy white 6-month olds—their size, for starters. At their young age they already measure nearly 4 ft. long, tip the scales at 80 lb., and could grow to 6 ft. and 150 lb. Then there’s their behavior: the angelic exuberance puppies exhibit in the presence of humans—trotting up for hugs, belly rubs, kisses—is completely absent. They keep their distance, retreating if a person approaches.

Scientists have grown an entity that closely resembles an early human embryo, without using sperm, eggs or a womb.

The Weizmann Institute team say their "embryo model", made using stem cells, looks like a textbook example of a real 14-day-old embryo.

It even released hormones that turned a pregnancy test positive in the lab.

The ambition for embryo models is to provide an ethical way of understanding the earliest moments of our lives.

Why would a bio-lab run by a shady Chinese company be operating in Reedley, CA in the central San Joaquin Valley?

What was supposed to be an empty building used only for storage was home to a black-market type of lab testing facility.

YourCentralValley.com reports that the discovery was made after a local code enforcement officer noticed this garden hose poking out a back wall of the building.

A team of researchers in the United States and United Kingdom say they have created the world’s first synthetic human embryo-like structures from stem cells, bypassing the need for eggs and sperm.

These embryo-like structures are at the very earliest stages of human development: They don’t have a beating heart or a brain, for example. But scientists say they could one day help advance the understanding of genetic diseases or the causes of miscarriages.

Scientists have created the first synthetic human embryos - using no eggs or sperm - provoking deep ethical questions, according to reports.

The synthetic embryos - only days or weeks old - could help researchers study the earliest stages of human development and explain pregnancy loss.

Nobody is currently suggesting growing them into a baby.

But the rapid progress has outpaced discussions on how they should be dealt with ethically and legally.

Oh, brave new world, that has such embryos in it.

In a dramatic scientific first, researchers have created synthetic human embryos without using sperm or an egg.

No one knows if these embryonic structures — created from stem cells — could develop into a viable living organism, or what that organism might be like.

But the breakthrough is sure to ignite furious ethical, legal and scientific debate.

The synthetic embryo models had primordial cells that could eventually develop into egg and sperm cells.

Delegates from around the world are gathering in Montreal this week to address what United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has described as "humanity's senseless and suicidal war with nature."

Some conservation scientists are warning that a global deal to protect the environment is under threat after negotiations stalled during international talks in Nairobi last week. They are calling on global leaders to rescue the talks — and biodiversity — from the brink. Others are more hopeful that, although progress has been slow, a deal will be struck by the end of the year.