1337chemist

There is a picture of one of their horn chunks in this article. There are some pictures of larger horns they have made somewhere but I am still looking. The crowdfunding is strictly for the sequencing. They are not crowdfunding their own operations but taking private investments.

http://www.fastcoexist.com/3047427/this-new-chinese-beer-will-be-made-with-fake-rhino-horn-to-help-save-real-rhinos

Animal farming in general seems to eventually devolve into very poor and unethical living conditions for the animal. If you can jump right over farming and go straight to an identical, synthetic version then why not?

We can manufacture our lab made horn at prices that will de-incentivize poaching but still give us a profit.

We have put a lot of thought into this and I don't want to disclose anything too early but we have played with the idea of a "secret watermark" of sorts, genetically or otherwise.

People care about poaching for a number of reasons so I don't really know what I can say to make you care other than why I care. I think that rhinos are truly amazing creatures. They are like modern day dinosaurs and them being ruthlessly killed in brutal ways is heart wrenching. No normal person likes to see innocent animals put through needless pain... or at least I hope not. So that is why I care.

In terms of why I am working on this, I can't speak for Matt but when he approached me with the idea my motivator was that it was an interesting scientific problem and I love that kind of stuff. The fact that it was a good cause was icing on the cake.