Dean Fassnidge, State Director, MUFON Oregon

The McMinnville, Oregon UFO Festival began in 2000 to commemorate an important event in local UFO history, the Trent farm photos. It is celebrated each year around the date of the sighting with parades, social events, and scientific presentations.

Speakers this year included Dr. Matthew Szydagis, Dr. Rebecca Charbonneau (SETI), Kelly

Chase, Jason Martell (Ancient Aliens), George Knapp, and Jeremy Corbell.

• Each year, the Oregon MUFON chapter also has prominent exposure in the main lecture hall to answer public questions and promote our organization. At the same time, we make some great connections with others in our field. This event is truly exceptional and should be a “must” for any enthusiast.

A little background history. It can be argued that the first documented UFO case in Oregon history is known as the Trent Sighting, occurring on May 11, 1950, above the Trent family farm located between McMinnville and Sheridan, Oregon.

Evelyn Trent observed a disc-shaped object maneuvering in the sky above their farm.

She alerted her husband, Paul, and they saw an object and estimated it to be about 20 to 30 feet in diameter. Paul went back into the house, grabbed his Kodak camera, and took two photographs before the object flew off to the west. Immediately, they alerted their in-laws, who lived next to the property, and their father-in-law observed the object as well.

Paul Trent initially thought it was a secret military aircraft and kept the sighting to himself. He finished his roll of film, containing previously taken pictures around the farm, including pictures of his family’s Mother’s Day picnic celebration.

This action in itself indirectly bolsters the legitimacy of the event, and that there was no intent to fabricate the images – they were in the middle of the film roll.

A month later, while talking with his banker, Frank Wortman, and encouraged by his brother Ralph, he mentioned the sighting and his photographs. Mr. Wortman was excited and displayed the photos in his bank’s window in McMinnville.

Shortly thereafter, local reporter Bill Powell convinced Trent to loan him the negatives and ran an article in the McMinnville Telephone-Register newspaper.

On June 9 and 10, 1950, The Oregonian published the photographs. On June 12, the story aired on national news broadcasts, followed by reprints of the photographs in the June 26 issue of Life magazine. The Trents were even flown to New York to appear on the television show, We The People.

Following this national exposure, an investigator from Project Blue Book came to the farm to interview the Trents, in addition to investigators from the FBI.

In 1969, as we know, the Air Force’s Condon Commission published a report, claiming an exhaustive UFO study, and easily dismissing many accounts. However, it was stated that the Trent photographs were “difficult to explain conventionally” and concluded that the photographs were genuine. Following the conclusion of the Condon report, the negatives were returned to UPI, and in 1970, they were sent back to the

News-Register (formerly the Telephone Register) in McMinnville. When they arrived back at the paper, 20 years later, the negatives had been tampered with considerably.

Someone had cropped the negatives, trimming down the edges and reducing their overall size so that parts of the original image were missing. Despite ongoing attempts by Philip Klass and others to debunk the photos, in 1975, Dr. Bruce Maccabee of MUFON, a renowned optical-photo analyst, made an intensive study of the negatives and concluded that they were not the result of some kind of trickery.

Interesting Side Note:

In 1999, a longtime resident of McMinnville saw the pictures and articles commemorating the Trent UFO sighting at the newly opened Hotel Oregon. Wishing to remain anonymous, she validated the sighting by telling her story. On May 11, 1950, she and a group of her fellow Linfield College students heard stories of a recent UFO encounter nearby. They went to the area of the present site of the McMinnville airport and saw dozens of cars pulled off the road, presently on Three Mile Lane. Following the direction people were looking, they too observed a “steel gray, metal saucer” floating just above tree level.

Their encounter went unreported.

{ https://mufon.com/ }

Declassified UFO files: Video of Lake Huron encounter with F-16 near UP released by Pentagon

The Brief

• The second set of newly declassified UFO files includes an incident of an F-16c encounter over Lake Huron from 2023.
• On video a military jet shoots down what appeared to be a weather balloon object on camera before a white circular object appears.
• The object floats around the crosshairs of the gun camera before eventually disappearing.

FOX 2 - The Pentagon's newest release on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Friday includes a mysterious incident over Lake Huron near Michigan's Upper Peninsula after a shoot-down a few years ago.

Timeline:

The revelation comes from a Feb. 12, 2023 incident which was part of a second set of declassified files. 

A newly declassified video shown in infrared, depicts an object appearing to be a weather balloon shot down – moments before a bright white object appears to the right of the crosshairs.

The bright white object appears to float around the crosshairs on video before eventually disappearing.

In the declassified release, a 46-second video with redactions shows the encounter, labeled "USAF ANG F-16C [CALLSIGN] Shoots Down UAP over Lake Huron with [Weapon System], 12 Feb 2023," from an infrared sensor "aboard a U.S. military platform operating within the United States Northern Command area of responsibility in 2023." 

"At the 11-second mark, the sensor focuses on an area of contrast in the center of its field-of-view," the video description says. "At the 20-second mark, the footage appears to depict a kinetic interaction between two distinct areas of contrast, with the initial subject of the footage fragmenting in a radial displacement pattern that suggests a high-energy event."

The file release does not speculate on the origin of the object, saying it was for informational purposes only.

Two screenshots of what appeared to be a balloon shot down in the moments before the bright object appeared:

Before and after pictures captured from DOD released video.

"Readers should not interpret any part of this description as reflecting an analytical judgment, investigative conclusion, or factual determination regarding the described event’s validity, nature, or significance," the statement said.

More than 60 new files ranging from government documents, military surveillance videos and audio transcriptions of people reporting unexplained orbs, disc and fireballs.  The review and declassification is being handled by the Department of Defense, with support from the Director of National Intelligence. 

Most of the documents, videos and files are from unresolved cases, some previously released, with no definitive determination on the nature of what was observed. 

Dig deeper:

The Feb. 12 incident happened amid a flap of weather balloon sightings, including one which was labeled a Chinese spy balloon shot down over the Atlantic Ocean.

The head of NORAD and U.S. Northern Command declined to give any details about what it was, but in retrospect was likely commenting on the balloon, and not the balloon-like object.

Gen. Glen D. VanHerck, the commander of the United States Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command, did not categorize those objects as balloons publicly at the time.

"I haven’t ruled out anything," VanHerck said at the time when asked if the objects could be aliens or something else extraterrestrial. 

Related: Mysteries swirl around object shot down over Lake Huron

According to the general, an object was spotted on a radar in Canada the day before. That object then crossed into the U.S. and was spotted over Montana. However, the track was lost. An object spotted in Wisconsin was "likely" the same one as the one seen in Montana.

Featured

article

Unidentified object shot down over Lake Huron -- Everything we know about it

An unidentified object was shot down over Lake Huron on Sunday. It's the fourth object to be shot down by U.S. fighter jets in eight days.

VanHerck said the military prepared to engage the object and watched it pass over Lake Michigan before shooting it down over Lake Huron.

Ominously, in retrospect, when asked at the time if there are potentially more objects flying, VanHerck said "it’s certainly possible," but he could not confirm that.

For more information, click here for the latest batch of files: war.gov/UFO/

Picture captured from DOD released video with red circle added.

The Source: Information for this story is from newly released Pentagon files as well as prior reporting about the Feb. 12, 2023 suspected military weather balloon encounter over Lake Huron.

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DOW-UAP-PR071 | USAF ANG F-16C Shoots Down UAP over Lake Huron | 12 Feb 2023 - DOD 111720731

'UFO SHOT DOWN': US Military F-16 Hits Mystery Object with Missile Over Lake Huron, Iran UAPs

{ https://www.fox2detroit.com/ }

UFO files could ‘backfire’ on Trump, disclosure advocate says

This unsealed Apollo 17 photo is the 'most significant' new UAP release, says Age of Disclosure director

"We are not aware of any human technology that should have been hovering over the moon watching the astronauts in 1972," Dan Farah tells EW.

By Mike Miller

"For decades, UFO disclosure has been a distant object — unidentified and unexplained," senate minority leader Chuck Schumer tweeted. "That’s starting to change. I’ll keep pushing until we land on the truth." 

Dan Farah, who coincidentally produced Spielberg’s Ready Player One years before directing last year’s UAP exposé, The Age of Disclosure, says this is just the beginning. 

Now Prime Video’s most-watched documentary, Age of Disclosure "opened a lot of eyes, not only in the public but inside government," Farah tells Entertainment Weekly.

The Age Of Disclosure/youtube

Exposing what he describes as an "80-year cover-up of the existence of non-human intelligent life," as well as "a high-stakes secret Cold War race" between the U.S. and "adversary nations to reverse engineer technology of non-human origin," the film featured interviews with 34 senior members of the U.S. legislative, military, and intelligence communities, including then-U.S. Senator Marco Rubio.

"Within three months," Farah says, the film’s release “straight up led to President Trump taking a legitimate historic, unprecedented action to declassify evidence that the U.S. government has of UAP and non-human intelligent life."

Below, Farah gives his reaction to the May 8 releases, including what he finds most compelling, what his sources in the government are telling him behind the scenes, and when we can expect more evidence to be brought forward. 

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: As you predicted in your film and in our previous interviews, the government has begun to release previously classified information on UAPs. Now that you’ve had a chance to go through everything, what's your reaction to what’s been unsealed?

DAN FARAH: When we made The Age of Disclosure, the hope of my interview subjects and me was that it would lead to a national conversation at an unprecedented level and cause the White House to take action. And that's exactly what happened. So I couldn't be prouder of the impact the film has had and this historic disclosure process that it's caused. It was less than a few months after the release of the movie that President Trump issued this historic presidential directive telling federal agencies to declassify evidence of non-human intelligent life and UAP, and that was followed by weeks of his senior cabinet members going to all the federal agencies and branches of the military and demanding that they turn over evidence that they have.

They got a lot of pushback from all the people who have been involved in covering this up, and they still have not gotten all the evidence they have been trying to get on behalf of the American people. But they did get some, and of that, they were able to comfortably declassify a number of UAP videos and images and files related to UAP that had been previously classified.

And you believe there’s more to come? 

When they released this on May 8th, they made it clear that this was just the first tranche of evidence, and it would be a rolling disclosure process, a rolling declassification process of this evidence. And that's because their effort to get the evidence out of all these federal agencies and branches of the military is ongoing and active. And I know a number of senior cabinet members in the current administration are actively working on this on a weekly basis, even people who haven't publicly been associated with this topic. It's a huge priority for the White House. The goal of the film was to bring about mainstream disclosure and drive action by our government, and that's exactly what's happening, so I couldn't be prouder.

Do you feel public sentiment on UAPs has shifted? 

I think the unjustified antiquated stigma that has historically surrounded this topic is dead and gone once and for all. I don't think any intelligent person is now questioning whether this is real, especially after watching The Age of Disclosure. And I think the White House's recent actions pushing disclosure forward also make it clear how real and serious this is.

Department of War

What did you find most surprising in this first tranche? 

I think, hands down, the most significant evidence released in that first tranche on May 8th is an image of what appears to be a triangle craft hovering over the moon during the 1972 Apollo mission. When I was making The Age of Disclosure, a number of high-level officials I interviewed told me they had seen that image but that it had never been released to the public, and they hoped it would eventually get out. 

So when that was included in this first tranche of evidence, I thought that was pretty significant. Certainly, we are not aware of any human technology that should have been hovering over the moon watching the astronauts in 1972, right? It's pretty extraordinary. Additionally, several of the people in my film told me they investigated that image in their official capacities, and when you apply certain filters to that image, there are actually other objects in the same frame that you can't see with the naked eye.

What else stood out to you?

There was a lot of stuff in this. There were old memos, military memos that make it clear that this has been an issue going all the way back to the ‘40s. There are some significant internal military memos that were declassified acknowledging that this isn't manmade technology. But I certainly think the Apollo mission photo is super significant.

I've also been told by senior members of Congress who I've gotten close with that they have been helping the White House identify more evidence, and they're expecting around 40 more UAP videos to be released in the next few weeks.

Department of War

In the doc and in our previous conversations, you’ve described a “tug of war” behind the scenes, where certain members of the intelligence community, government, and military are fighting to keep these documents classified. Do you have hope that the most compelling evidence will be released to the public one day?  

I know as a fact that the elements of the U.S. government that have been involved in gatekeeping this information for the past 80 years are aggressively pushing back against this presidential directive. They are actively fighting it. They do not want to turn over this evidence that they have been holding and gatekeeping. In fact, their goal is to put all this back in a box and bury it for another 80 years.

It's also notably a bipartisan effort. In Congress, it's Congresswoman [Anna Paulina] Luna, Congressman Eric Burlison, and Congressman [Tim] Burchett on the Republican side, and on the Democratic side, it's Congressman [Jared] Moskowitz and Congressman [André] Carson. In the U.S. Senate, it's Sen. Chuck Schumer, Sen. [Mike] Rounds, Sen. [Kristen] Gillibrand, and then you have the key members of the President's Cabinet all over this. So it's a really unique bipartisan effort at a senior level.

It's safe to say disclosure of UAP and non-human intelligent life has become a national priority.

Department of War

What would you say to skeptics who argue that some or all of the photos and videos in these files could have ordinary, terrestrial explanations? 

Well, all the stuff that they released and labeled as UAP are UAP. They're unidentified anomalous phenomena. I also want to stress that what has been released publicly in this first tranche of evidence barely scratches the surface. That's just like one to 5 percent of the evidence that just a couple of federal agencies have shared. Not every federal agency has turned over the evidence they're supposed to. Not every branch of the military has turned it over. Almost all those documents come from just a couple of federal agencies.

Looking into your crystal ball, when do you think we might get incontrovertible evidence that aliens are among us? 

I think the process has begun, and it's not reversible. I think the White House and Congress are gonna keep fighting their way to the most meaningful evidence, then declassify as much of it as they feel they can safely do without creating threats to national security. And I think we're gonna get to a point of the best evidence eventually being unveiled to the public, and I think we will also get to a point after that where we do finally see a sitting president step to the microphone and tell the world we're not alone in the universe.

Do you worry that the drip of information could turn people more skeptical?

I think we're past being concerned about people who can't accept reality, you know? That's like letting yourself worry about people who think the Earth is flat.

Anything else you want to share about these latest developments? 

I'm really excited for Spielberg's new film Disclosure Day. I certainly would never have made The Age of Disclosure if not for the impact his work had on me. Close Encounters and E.T. are two of my favorite films since I was a child, and especially Close Encounters piqued my curiosity about this topic more than anything, and made me curious about those big questions like, Are we alone in the universe? Does the U.S. government, in fact, know more about this topic than the public does? — which is the common thesis in both E.T. and Close Encounters.

{ https://ew.com/ }

This unsealed Apollo 17 photo is the 'most significant' new UAP release, says Age of Disclosure director

"We are not aware of any human technology that should have been hovering over the moon watching the astronauts in 1972," Dan Farah tells EW.

The Pentagon’s New UFO Files Include Fighter Jets, Orange Orbs, and a Lot of Grainy Footage

The Pentagon released yet another batch of UFO files on Friday. Like the previous release, there’s some weird stuff in here, but not enough to make me question my existence or fear for my life.

This latest release includes 64 files in total: 6 PDFs, 7 audio files, and 51 (!!!) videos. The files that were made public are available via the Pentagon’s UFO website. So, what’s actually in this round? And is there anything worth going out of your way to check out?

Well, it’s jam-packed with a lot of grainy military footage. We’re talking about videos of various UAPs (unidentified anomalous phenomena) captured by military aircraft and sensors. So if you like stuff like that, or miss playing the Nintendo Virtual Boy, this batch of alien stuff is very much for you.

Perhaps the most notable video appears to show a fighter jet shooting down an unidentified object over Lake Huron. That footage, captured in 2023, was recorded during the national balloon panic that followed the Chinese spy balloon drama. Reports suggest that the object may have been a balloon from a hobbyist group, which is pretty funny to think about.

There are more videos from 2018-2023, including some footage from around the Persian Gulf. One 2022 video shows multiple spherical objects moving in and out of the water near a military submarine. Of course, you’re left to your own thoughts and imagination as to what those spherical objects really are.

The Pentagon Released More UFO Files, and the Best One Involves a Helicopter Crew Seeing Orange Orbs

The strangest thing found in this release? A first-hand account from a senior intelligence officer who is still currently serving. In the report, the officer describes being aboard a military helicopter late last year while investigating UFO sightings. According to his account, the crew experienced several close encounters over the course of an hour and even saw countless orange orbs moving around a mountain.

At one point, two large, orange, oval-shaped orbs with bright centers appeared near the helicopter, just above the rotor disk. The officer claims that he and the crew were left “virtually speechless” by the encounter.

Sadly, there is no hard evidence in this batch of files that aliens exist or are currently living among us. But if you’re looking for a dumb distraction from all of the real nonsense going on in the world, the Pentagon’s official UFO website is where the government wants you to go.

{ https://www.vice.com/en }

4 UFOs over Iran in 2022, US Gov File Release, UFO UAP Paranormal Sighting News.

Date of sighting: 8-26-2022

Location of sighting: Iran 

Source: 

• https://www.war.gov/ufo/?releaseDate=Release+02#DOW-UAP-PR050-4-UAP-Formation-Iran-26-Aug-2022-over-water-CALLSIGN

This is a video released by the US gov this week and it's just mind-blowing. The footage shows three UFOs flying side by side moving past Iranian speedboats and another single UFO flying over the boats. Why would aliens care about the military war in Iran? Back in WWI and WWII they say and recorded them too, but they called the foo fighters because they flew along side the military aircraft and ships. Here we get to see them, however the infrared video is poor and less detailed. What everyone is waiting for is...the color video footage close up of a real alien UFO. Something the public can really sink its teeth into. 

Scott C. Waring - UFO Sightings Daily 

 

RELATED 

{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

The largest and most powerful rocket in history exploded in a massive fireball after its successful test flight around the Earth Friday night.

Elon Musk's SpaceX declared the launch of Starship 12 a success and noted that the space capsule's explosion in the Indian Ocean was planned as the aerospace company did not plan to reuse the experimental craft.

Starship Flight 12 took off from SpaceX's launching pad in Starbase, Texas Friday night as the company began critical trials before NASA uses this third version of Starship to take astronauts to the moon and beyond. 

While the craft successfully made it into space, the launch was not perfect, as Starship lost the use of one of its six new 'Raptor' engines. It was forced to burn its remaining five engines longer to compensate.

However, the unmanned rocket was still able to complete most of its planned mission, successfully surviving reentry and completing its landing maneuvers before splashing down in the ocean and erupting into a ball of flame.

Flight 12 tested Version 3 of Starship, the company's latest design which featured several improvements based on lessons from earlier test flights, including more efficient and powerful Raptor 3 engines, better fuel systems and more heat protection.

Musk and his team are eyeing this version of Starship as the one NASA astronauts will use as their lunar lander for the Artemis program. It will carry astronauts to the moon’s surface as soon as 2028 when Artemis IV is scheduled to take off.

SpaceX’s long-term dream for Starship V3 is to send both humans and cargo to Mars to build the first self-sustaining city on the Red Planet. Starship was designed to be refueled in orbit so it can make the long journey to Mars.

SpaceX Starship 12, the company's third version of the craft, launched successfully at 6.30pm ET on May 22

SpaceX Starship 12, the company's third version of the craft, launched successfully at 6.30pm ET on May 22

SpaceX Starship 12, the company's third version of the craft, launched successfully at 6.30pm ET on May 22

Pictured: Starship 12 splashes down in the Indian Ocean after a successful test flight on May 22

As planned, Starship 12 exploded once it touched down in the Indian Ocean 66 minutes after launching from Starbase, Texas

Friday's test flight was a suborbital mission, meaning it did not go into full orbit, and was said by SpaceX to be the first pivotal step in testing how the new Starship's hardware behaves under real flight conditions.

Starship 12 featured two key parts, the 'Super Heavy,' the bottom booster stage with 33 powerful Raptor engines, and the Starship, the upper part sitting on top of the booster that has its own engines. The spacecraft is what would carry astronauts to space.

Overall, the rocket stood as tall as a 50-story building, making it the biggest and most powerful rocket in history.

After a successful liftoff from Starbase, Texas at 6.30pm ET, the Super Heavy booster separated after a few minutes of flight, conducted a 'boostback' burn to slow itself down and then performed a landing burn to splash down gently in the Gulf of America.

Unlike previous SpaceX missions, this rocket booster did not try to land back at the launch site as the company's other reusable rockets have.

Meanwhile, the upper Starship stage continued into space, where it successfully deployed 22 dummy Starlink satellites 20 minutes into the flight.

Cameras inside the craft captured the moment as each communications panel slid out of the cargo hatch and was sent off into orbit as the SpaceX crew back on Earth cheered and chanted 'USA' from the company's control center in Texas.

SpaceX did note during the flight that a scheduled restart of one of the craft's engines while in space was cancelled due to the loss of one of Starship's six engines during launch.

Starship 12 successfully reached space despite the loss of one of its six engines on May 22

The SpaceX spacecraft successfully launched 22 fake Starlink satellites (Pictured) during its tests in space

Pictured: SpaceX tests Starship's heat shields during reentry maneuvers on May 22

SpaceX had planned for Starship 12 to be destroyed on reentry as they stressed the craft's heat shields, but the rocket survived and exploded once landing in the Indian Ocean

Flight 12 made it through Earth's atmosphere intact despite SpaceX testing its heat shields by deliberately removing one panel to see how the craft would hold up under such stress.

Despite the stress, cameras captured the moment the rocket passed through the atmosphere without burning up and then adjusted its course to reach its final landing spot in the Indian Ocean. The whole flight took just over 66 minutes.

Starship 12 was initially set to launch on Thursday, but the mission was postponed after several attempts to fix a mechanical issue just 40 seconds from takeoff.

Musk revealed after the failed attempt that a hydraulic pin holding the tower arm in place did not retract from the craft.

{ https://www.dailymail.com/sciencetech/index.html }

Scientists have managed to hatch live chicks from a fully artificial egg – marking a de-extinction breakthrough that paves the way for resurrecting long-dead species.

Experts at Colossal Biosciences, the company planning to bring back the woolly mammoth, have created the first ever shell-less incubation system that mirrors a natural egg 'as much as possible'.

The team were able to take early bird embryos, place them into an artificial shell and incubate them for 18 days while they developed.

Once the chicks were ready, they hatched from their cosy home and are now living happy, healthy lives.

The company said the development marks a critical milestone for their plans to de-extinct the South Island giant moa – an enormous bird that stood at 11.8ft (3.6 metres) tall and weighed 507lbs (230kg).

It also provides a 'stepping stone' for the eventual development of an artificial womb.

Colossal Biosciences said: 'This device changes everything. We're showing the world that we can grow this whole bird in an incubator outside of an eggshell.

'It's a complete game-changer. Life finds a way.'

Experts have created the first ever shell-less incubation system that mirrors a natural egg 'as much as possible'

The artificial egg features a 'window' on the top, allowing for real-time visibility into every stage of embryonic development

The artificial egg device consists of a 3D-printed strong outer shell structured like a lattice to provide protection and rigidity.

Within this layer is a silicone-based membrane that allows oxygen to diffuse into the system.

Over the last 40 years there have been several attempts to create artificial eggs, but they required supplementation with large volumes of pure oxygen which caused DNA damage and impacted long-term animal health.

The permeable membrane of this new design allows oxygen to naturally transfer from the atmosphere into the egg.

This mirrors the real-life process of oxygen entering eggshells through microscopic pores.

'How do we replicate nature but also improve upon it?' Colossal said. 'This is the first time the core engineering problem of artificial eggs has been solved.'

The artificial egg also features a 'window' on the top, allowing for real-time visibility into every stage of embryonic development.

Colossal said its device is compatible with standard commercial incubators, is manufacturable at scale and is adaptable to eggs at any size.

One of the chicks emerging from its artificial egg. Colossal said it marks a de-extinction breakthrough that paves the way for resurrecting long-dead species

Once the chicks were ready, they hatched from their cosy home and are now living happy, healthy lives

The artificial egg 

• Strong outer shell provides protection and rigidity
• Inside this is a permeable membrane which allows oxygen to diffuse into the system
• 'Window' on the top allows real–time visibility into every stage of embryonic development
• See more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred Source

To begin the process, experts collected real chicken eggs right after they had been laid.

An embryology team thoroughly examined each egg and selected the embryos that looked most likely to hatch.

They then cracked the egg open very gently and transferred the contents into the artificial egg, which was then placed in an incubator.

Scientists 'sprinkled' in a nutrient that helped the embryo continue to develop. Roughly 18 days later the chick started tapping against the egg to indicate it was ready to hatch.

After hatching, all chicks were put in groups and eventually moved to a 'graduation pen' outside before being relocated to a large farm.

Colossal said its design could also benefit endangered animals at a time when more than half of bird species are in decline.

'Imagine a future where we have hundreds or thousands of eggs in laboratories growing critically endangered species,' it said.

'These are the stepping stones that an artificial womb will be built on.'

The device consists of a 3D-printed strong outer shell structured like a lattice to provide protection and rigidity

Colossal said its device is compatible with standard commercial incubators, is manufacturable at scale and is adaptable to eggs at any size

How the artificial egg was used to hatch a live chick

1. Collect real chicken eggs right after they have been laid
2. Embryology team thoroughly examine each egg and select those that look most likely to hatch
3. Crack the egg open very gently and transfer the contents into the artificial egg
4. Artificial egg is placed in incubator. Scientists 'sprinkle' in a nutrient that helps the embryos continue to develop
5. 18 days later the chick starts tapping against the egg to indicate it is ready to hatch
6. Chicks put in groups and eventually move to a 'graduation pen' outside before being relocated to a large farm

The company said its plan to bring back the South Island giant moa has presented an incubation challenge unlike any other species in their portfolio.

Moa eggs are estimated to have been approximately 80 times the volume of a chicken egg and roughly eight times the volume of an emu egg, placing them entirely beyond the capacity of any available avian surrogate.

No living bird is large enough to serve as a host. A size-scaled artificial egg, therefore, is critical for the de-extinction of this species.

Colossal Biosciences will use genes extracted from moa bones to engineer modern birds until they very closely resemble the extinct species, which disappeared from New Zealand roughly 500 to 600 years ago.

This is the same technique that was used to transform grey wolves into animals closely resembling dire wolves.

The edited embryos will then be placed into an artificial egg to develop and eventually hatch.

'We've created a novel shell-less culture system that is fully scalable and biologically accurate,' said Professor Andrew Pask, chief biology officer at Colossal. 'It's a new system designed for long-term, healthy avian embryo development.

'The genome is the blueprint, but without a place to build, it's meaningless. The artificial egg gives us that platform: controlled, scalable, and completely independent of a surrogate.'

The company said the development marks a critical milestone for their plans to de-extinct New Zealand's South Island giant moa – an enormous bird that stood at 3.6 metres (11.8ft) tall and weighed 230kg (507lbs)

The moa went extinct in the 15th century due to hunting and forest clearing by the first Māori settlers. Colossal Biosciences said restoring this megafauna species will help restore New Zealand's ecosystem 

Some outside experts have cautioned that there is no published scientific paper along the announcement, which limits scientific scrutiny. However, others hailed the advance as an 'impressive act of bioengineering'.

Carles Lalueza-Fox, director of the Museum of Natural Sciences of Barcelona and a specialist in DNA recovery techniques, said: 'Colossal has succeeded in developing an artificial egg, something for which there are no comparable precedents.

'The most significant breakthrough lies in the permeability of the membrane, which allows gases (oxygen and carbon dioxide) to pass through.'

Alongside the moa, he said the device could be used to de-extinct other birds such as the Carolina parakeet.

Read More

• The ambitious plan to 'de-extinct' the bluebuck: Company attempting to bring back the woolly mammoth sets its sights on a species of antelope that died out 230 years ago

Dusko Ilic, Professor of Stem Cell Sciences at King's College London, said: 'Recreating an extinct species such as the moa would require far more than an incubation platform, including accurate genome reconstruction, appropriate development, physiology, behaviour, welfare and ecological context.

'Even then, the result would likely be an engineered proxy rather than a true restoration of the extinct species.

'The most credible translational value may therefore lie in applications such as embryo rescue, endangered bird conservation and controlled generation of genome-edited avian lines, particularly if it proves reproducible, scalable and compatible with normal long-term health, rather than in de-extinction itself.'

Inside the ambitious plan to 'de-extinct the Dodo': How scientists are using stem cell technology to bring back the extinct species 

It's one of the most famous extinct animals of all time, ruthlessly hunted to extinction by humans in just a few decades. 

Now, scientists are edging closer to bringing the famous dodo back to its original home of Mauritius, the island east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. 

US startup Colossal Biosciences, based in Dallas, Texas, is using stem cell technology and genome editing to create a modern approximation of the species. 

At a cost of over $225 million (£180 million), it is 'de-extincting' the dodo more than 350 years after it was wiped out from Mauritius by European explorers. 

Scientists have already achieved the monumental feat of sequencing the full genome of the extinct species, from bone specimens and other fragments.

The next step is to gene-edit the skin cell of a close living relative, which in the dodo's case is the Nicobar pigeon, so that its genome matches that of the extinct bird.

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