*Gone But Not Forgotten* by Damien Hirst. (Image: Faena)

Everyone and everything want to live forever. The survival of the fittest encompasses immortality and ineradicability. Each requiring divergent elements.

To survive, adaptation is essential. Large animals like elephants evolved to grace us with their presence today. But their cousins, woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius), failed to keep up. First appearing nearly 1 million years ago, woolly’s demise likely arose from a mixture of environmental and genetic uphill battles.

Reaching legendary status dwarfs corporeal existence.

“mammoth comes from a time and place that we cannot ever fully understand”

— Damien Hirst

In Gone But Not Forgotten, Damien Hirst conveys that mammoths have become mythological because they lived in a time that is mysterious to us. He preserves their legacy and prevents death with bones, a box and aurum. Hirst professes impermanence through gilding mammoth bones.

The highly malleable nature of gold makes it indestructible. Bodies are breakable, but that components that create life are not. The ability of those components to adapt leads to everlastingness. Genetic mutations and epigenetic additions accommodate environmental changes. Mammoth DNA is available after millions of years pass unmet epochs. DNA’s cousin RNA has lasted longer and on other planets compared to mammoths and humans. These tell stories of life beyond boxes.

“I pitched everything I can against death to create something more hopeful.”

— Damien Hirst

The Science

Science has discovered that the last of the mammoths, woolly, may have met its end due to a lot of what humans encounter today- climate changes, population constraints, dietary availabilities, and geographical difficulties. To evade a mammoth fate, eradicating death from diseases is a start.

Gold, a precious metal that fluctuates in price, symbolizes wealth, and may help humans circumvent extinction. Tumors, cardiovascular conditions, and inflammatory diseases can be diagnosed and treated using gold nanoparticles through theranostics. Gold nanoparticles can transport certain treatments passed the blood brain barrier for targeted and instant therapy in Alzheimer’s, the leading cause of dementia and related deaths.

Bottom Line

The demise of massive structures is unbelievable, whether witnessed or before our time. We remain in awe and at a loss of the Titanic’s sinking. Like the mammoth, it’s size conveyed indestructability. Extraordinarily, DNA outliving the animal is more mystifying than the immensity of woolly. Over 420 thousand years after extinction, present-day researchers are able to learn about an animal’s history through teenier than teeny nucleic acids. Preserved throughout time in fossils*. Our bones. Put that in a giant gilded glass box.