According to The Boston Globe and National Geographic, scientists are debating bringing extinct species back to life. Their first test, if this happens, will be the passenger pigeon, which was driven to extinction by hunters in 1914.

In February, scientists gathered at Harvard to decide whether such a feat of conservation — which they’re calling “De-extinction” — can and should be done. The process of resurrecting a dead and instinct species would involve the very precise changing of individual spots in a genome so as to take one species and tweak its DNA in the appropriate ways to create a closely related one that is otherwise extinct, according to the Globe.

There are advantages to pursuing this experiment, but it seems a frightening science-fiction-like endeavor — and a potentially futile one at that. Species become extinct for a reason, and bringing them back will disturb current ecosystems perhaps more than we can predict. According to the Globe, some are concerned that if species revival technology became available, it would detract scientific attention and resources from the critical job of protecting habitats and saving existing species. Moreover, if we choose to bring back a species from 1914, we must also make sure that we have ways of sustaining them with suitable habitats and diets, and it might be the case that these things went extinct along with the species. Resurrecting long-gone animals might be a lost cause in that it instigates an unsustainable cycle of ecosystem imbalances.

On the other hand, understanding how to tweak genes so as to conserve certain species would be a good thing, so long as we can support the animals we choose to bring back or keep around. Perhaps reaching into the past to alter and fortify the genes of a dead pigeon will enable us to do the same to the genes of animals we have at present and prevent further cases of extinction.

The experiment should be carried out either way, though, in the name of scientific discovery and possibility. If it succeeds (or even if it doesn’t) it will help us better understand our world and its delicate and changing ecosystems.