The Monocle Minute

Earlier this week, Joe Biden described Hurricane Helene as a “biblical” weather event (writes Christopher Lord). As it blew through the US southeast, it brought a deluge of rain and mud, leaving flattened villages in its wake. More than 130 people have died across six affected states. Around Asheville, North Carolina, where the floodwater is only just starting to recede, hundreds of people remain unaccounted for.

Monocle has reported many times from Asheville. We have also partnered with its tourism office and hosted a weekend retreat there for subscribers in 2023. In recent days, I’ve been speaking to contacts in the area who have lost their homes and livelihoods. An athlete who has featured in our pages told me that he had taken refuge in the basement of his house as an oak tree fell through his roof. Electricity connections across the region remain intermittent and drinking water is having to be trucked in.

It can sound trite to talk about resilience and community spirit in moments so bleak. Yet, over the past 20 years, Asheville has transformed itself from a quaint mountain town to a beacon of small and independent businesses, attracting original thinkers from across the country to open successful ventures in dining, design and music. It has become a magnet for start-ups.

Yet the events of the past week have shown that Asheville’s small-town spirit has not been lost. The James Beard Foundation Award-winning restaurant Chai Pani, for instance, has been helping World Central Kitchen with food distribution downtown. Record press Citizen Vinyl is letting people in to charge their devices. Blue Ridge Public Radio, broadcasting from a transmitter up in the mountains above the city, has once again become a lifeline for the region. There are many other examples of residents pulling together in the face of catastrophe. Prior to Hurricane Helene, Asheville was being talked about as a model for how small cities in rural America can renew themselves. It can do so again.

Christopher Lord is Monocle’s US editor. For more opinion, analysis and insight, subscribe to Monocle today.

The ferry ride from Vancouver to Vancouver Island, which lies off British Columbia’s coastline, is one of Canada’s most picturesque commutes. Since 1960, government-owned BC Ferries has served this route and attempts to open up the passenger-ferry sector to competition had long run aground. However, a privately operated passenger service has now joined the region’s fleet. It serves the 70-minute journey between Vancouver and the waterfront city of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island.

Cheerfully named Hullo, it was launched last summer by a new operator, the Vancouver Island Ferry Company, founded in Nanaimo in 2022. In its first year, 400,000 foot passengers used Hullo’s fleet, which consists of two speedy DFF 4212 ships built by Dutch yard Damen. Plans to increase the number of daily journeys this spring, including at night, are already in place. Hullo’s foray into the passenger-ferry sector has been smoother sailing than those of its predecessors for two reasons: a growing population in both Vancouver and on the island, and the addition of onward transport networks at every ferry terminal, including buses and seaplane services.

For more transport insights and ideas from our global network of reporters, buy a copy of the October issue of Monocle, which is out now.

Just as Paris Fashion Week wrapped up, Japanese retailer Uniqlo inaugurated a new exhibition at the Pavillon Vendôme. The Art and Science of LifeWear will be open to the public until Saturday.

Marking the brand’s 40th anniversary, this large-scale exhibition showcases some of its best loved designs and its innovative materials. One highlight is the HeatTech tunnel, where visitors can experience the fabric with the help of warm, colourful lights activated by their movements.

The show promotes Uniqlo’s presence in Paris and signals its aim to become more than a mass-market apparel name – an aspiration already boosted by the announcement of its new creative director, Clare Waight Keller, earlier this year. Formerly of Givenchy and Chloé, Keller will seek to bridge the gap between comfort and fashion.

Jurassic Park first captivated audiences with its thrilling tale of cloning dinosaurs from ancient DNA more than 30 years ago. That was pure science fiction then. But could today’s technology bring extinct species back to life? Monocle caught up with Ben Lamm, CEO and co-founder of Colossal Biosciences, to uncover the real science behind de-extinction and hear about the company’s plan to recover the woolly mammoth by 2028.

What is Colossal Biosciences?
Colossal Biosciences is the world’s first de-extinction and species-preservation company. We want to bring back iconic species such as the woolly mammoth, the Tasmanian tiger and the dodo. That’s probably what we’re best known for, in addition to developing technologies that can help human healthcare and conservation.

How can you reverse extinction?
First, we go to museums and then out into the field to extract highly fragmented ancient DNA. With the help of special software and artificial intelligence, we can reassemble pieces of DNA in order to build a reference genome for the particular extinct species. We compare that to the genome of its closest real living relative. In the case of the woolly mammoth, that’s the Asian elephant. They are 99.6 per cent genetically similar. Then, we try to identify the core genes that drive physical attributes, such as the mammoth’s shaggy coat, curved tusk and dome-shaped cranium. From there, we use a process known as somatic cell nuclear transfer to take the edited nucleus and put it in an egg cell of its closest living relative. If we’re successful, a little baby mammoth will be born 22 months later.

How do you balance the scientific challenges of your projects with the need to make them commercially viable and appealing to investors?
We aren’t trying to tackle de-extinction and species preservation in a linear fashion. We use computational biology, cellular engineering, stem-cell reprogramming and advanced reproductive technologies to help conservation. So many innovations are coming from this. We have already created two successful companies that have resulted from this and there are more in the works. The short-term gain is in technology development. But in the long term, the process of re-wilding these species could also be economically viable due to the rise of the biodiversity-credits market. You could build entire economies around the rewilding of these animals from a carbon-markets perspective.

For our full interview with Ben Lamm, tune in to the latest edition of ‘The Entrepreneurs’ on Monocle Radio.

Today, Monocle’s Monica Lillis heads to the leafy suburb of Herne Hill in South London to sample its artisanal bakeries and cafés, sit down at some of the area’s best restaurants and tour its stalwart Sunday market. Take a listen.