Science Fiction MythOr

Science Based Reality?

First: A Basic Understanding

In Jurassic Park, a man by the name of John Hammond comes up with the idea of extracting long-lost DNA out of the blood of a fossilized mosquito. This fossil is called amber and does exist. However, old John’s way to getting the DNA out is pure fiction.Let’s see why…

How they did itJurassic Park’s way of getting DNA was through extraction of blood from a mosquito stuck in amber using precise needles and “sophisticated techniques” as it claims. This is pure fiction, as when a mosquito turns into amber, the only thing remaining inside is it’s exoskeleton. There would be nothing to get the DNA from and the soft tissue of the exoskeleton would instantly break if even lightly touched. Sorry Mr. DNA, but it looks like your idea was a bust…

How we COULD do itNow we can’t just stroll down to a dig site, pick up some amber, and make a dinosaur. However, we could possibly make a creature that walks, sleeps, and eats EXACTLY like a dinosaur. Through backtracking the evolution of a chicken’s DNA, a scientists at Montana State University had bred a group of chickens that had small sharp teeth. This gene had been in chickens for thousands of years but had been turned off by its evolution because it was no longer necessary for survival. So how can we use this?

So in theory….Yes, in theory we could in fact make dinosaurs. They wouldn’t actually BE dinosaurs, we’d be creating an entirely new species that would basically be a dino doppelganger. If we found the correct evolutionary match to a dinosaur, we could backtrack it’s DNA and turn on all of it’s past traits until it reforms to it’s most basic form. Obviously we wouldn’t push it THAT far but the possibilities are endless once they perfect this technology… And if we do nail the technology

down, hopefully the outcome will be a little better than this.

Conclusions?We won’t have Jurassic Park in the next 50 years. We won’t have it in the next 100 years. This technology is a totally new idea and at it’s current state, finding the correct evolutionary matches of dinosaurs in modern times would take entire generations. In the far future, maybe someone will discover out ancient ancestors from the scraps of old DNA but for now, I think we should be a little grateful Jurassic Park ISN’T around quite yet…

It’s hard to believe that these guys used to be pigeons….

THE END