In his debut book Becoming Earth, journalist Ferris Jabr travels to Northern Yakutia, part of Russian Siberia. He's there to speak with Russian scientists Nikita Zimov and Sergey Zimov about their work in Pleistocene Park: an experimental nature park seeking to re-create the northern subarctic steppe grassland ecosystem.

"The trip to Pleistocene Park in Siberia was quite an ordeal because, first of all, it takes a three full days just to get there from the West Coast of North America," Jabr told me. Needless to say, traveling there was only a small fraction of the

The following is an unedited, unpublished excerpt from Ferris Jabr's reporting diary: