Science Officially Stomps All Hope of Dinosaur Cloning

[Froggy Slayer]

Eh, we can still probably genetically engineer some dinosaurs, it just means that the JP method is unscientific nonsense. Which most scientists knew anyways.

That's true - we've already started guiding ancestral evolutionary traits in chickens to reverse engineer them into dinosaurs. Still, Chickenosaurus Rex will just never be quite the same. And no, the JP methodology wasn't quite nonsense, which leads me to this:

Can we at least get a wooly mammoth or a sabertooth tiger as a consolation prize?! ='(

Yes, we can!! Mammoths have only been extinct for about 10,000 years, so their DNA is still in perfectly workable condition. This post [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/114562-Scientists-Resurrecting-Woolly-Mammoths] is a bit old, but we've recently made great strides in this exact experiment. We haven't gotten started on Smilodons yet (to my knowledge), but since they disappeared only 12,000 years ago, they're technically possible as well.

According to Wikipedia, mammoths went extinct 4,500 years ago. I did some maths and worked out that this means that the most recent mammoth fossil will only have approximately 0.2% of its original DNA still remaining. Is that enough to clone with?

The thing about mammoths is that we're finding much more intact, frozen ones Which means that the DNA is more intact. It still might be difficult to create a mammoth from these, but it's in the 'possible' category.

I'm not certain, but isn't the article referring to the atomic half life of DNA? I don't think radioactive decay is affected by changes in temperature (well, except for extremely low or high kelvin).

Edited to quote this guy as well:

Eh, we can still probably genetically engineer some dinosaurs, it just means that the JP method is unscientific nonsense. Which most scientists knew anyways.

That's true - we've already started guiding ancestral evolutionary traits in chickens to reverse engineer them into dinosaurs. Still, Chickenosaurus Rex will just never be quite the same. And no, the JP methodology wasn't quite nonsense, which leads me to this:

Can we at least get a wooly mammoth or a sabertooth tiger as a consolation prize?! ='(

Yes, we can!! Mammoths have only been extinct for about 10,000 years, so their DNA is still in perfectly workable condition. This post [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/114562-Scientists-Resurrecting-Woolly-Mammoths] is a bit old, but we've recently made great strides in this exact experiment. We haven't gotten started on Smilodons yet (to my knowledge), but since they disappeared only 12,000 years ago, they're technically possible as well.

According to Wikipedia, mammoths went extinct 4,500 years ago. I did some maths and worked out that this means that the most recent mammoth fossil will only have approximately 0.2% of its original DNA still remaining. Is that enough to clone with?

Don't forget that mammoths and smilodons inhabited places that are now encased in ice, and I guess deep freezing prolongs life of DNA
I might be wrong, but it makes sense

With the Mammoths, we have most of, if not the entire body preserved in the ice. The study was only concerning skeletal tissue.

 

[DugMachine]

What.
No.
Science.
Stahp.

Seriously, way to poop on our dreams of one day riding dinosaurs to work. We still got mammoths and fairly recent extinct species I guess. Dodo birds and saber tooth cats for all!

 

[Agow95]

We could do it if we used time travel, a large syringe, and a zoologist with balls of steel.

 

[The Random One]

Well, you just wait, science! When we invent time travel we'll get dino DNA straight from- wait you disproved time travel as well didn't you? WHY

 

[bdcjacko]

Science has failed me for the last time.

 

[Shinsei-J]

This saddens me to no end...
I'm bordering on 18 years old so I was wondering at what point my childhood would die.
This is that point.
DAMN YOU SCIENCE!

 

[xPixelatedx]

Eh, we can still probably genetically engineer some dinosaurs, it just means that the JP method is unscientific nonsense. Which most scientists knew anyways.

Pretty much this. It's amazing how black and white the world seems one day, and how grey it is the next. I am sure iPads could meet the same stipulations for 'never going to happen sci-fi nonsense' as early as 30-40 years ago, when they had no basis to fathom how such technology could ever truly come into existence. After all, how could you possibly make a computer that small and thin? Where would the giant motherboard go? lol
Hell, go back not many more years and that iPad might even be considered magic.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Fine then! We'll just make a time machine and nab a T-rex that way, screw you science!

 

[Albino Boo]

I'm not certain, but isn't the article referring to the atomic half life of DNA? I don't think radioactive decay is affected by changes in temperature (well, except for extremely low or high kelvin).

Half life in this case is referring to the time taken to break the chemical bonds that forms double helix of DNA. So in 521 years half of the bonds in the backbone have broken. However seeing that DNA is a very big molecule the fragments should be enough to work out what the original structure for much longer. They estimate that after 1.5 million years the fragments would be too small to able to reconstruct the original.

Don't forget that mammoths and smilodons inhabited places that are now encased in ice, and I guess deep freezing prolongs life of DNA
I might be wrong, but it makes sense

To a point yes, anything below -5C will also cause damage. Hydrogen bonds from water ice will start incorporate DNA into the ice crystals, again causing the DNA to breakdown.

 

[karloss01]

This saddens me to no end...
I'm bordering on 18 years old so I was wondering at what point my childhood would die.
This is that point.
DAMN YOU SCIENCE!

mine died when i watched showgirls for the first time.

"hey whats Jessie Spano doing in this movi- OH GOD MY CHILDHOOD!!! D:"

 

[Mumorpuger]

So I've been hanging on to my butt this whole time for nothing? Nothing??

 

[iniudan]

Eh, we can still probably genetically engineer some dinosaurs, it just means that the JP method is unscientific nonsense. Which most scientists knew anyways.

That's true - we've already started guiding ancestral evolutionary traits in chickens to reverse engineer them into dinosaurs. Still, Chickenosaurus Rex will just never be quite the same. And no, the JP methodology wasn't quite nonsense, which leads me to this:

Can we at least get a wooly mammoth or a sabertooth tiger as a consolation prize?! ='(

Yes, we can!! Mammoths have only been extinct for about 10,000 years, so their DNA is still in perfectly workable condition. This post [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/114562-Scientists-Resurrecting-Woolly-Mammoths] is a bit old, but we've recently made great strides in this exact experiment. We haven't gotten started on Smilodons yet (to my knowledge), but since they disappeared only 12,000 years ago, they're technically possible as well.

According to Wikipedia, mammoths went extinct 4,500 years ago. I did some maths and worked out that this means that the most recent mammoth fossil will only have approximately 0.2% of its original DNA still remaining. Is that enough to clone with?

The thing about mammoths is that we're finding much more intact, frozen ones Which means that the DNA is more intact. It still might be difficult to create a mammoth from these, but it's in the 'possible' category.

We also have Asian elephant which is closely related genus, along other species of elephant to help us determine a good part of the DNA. Basically the task of mostly to determine how to make a Asian elephant woolly and with giant tusk.

 

[mad825]

Impossible? No. Too early to say.

Our very understand of DNA is still in it's infancy. While I'll agree that we cannot "clone" the current samples, we could replicate it by filling in the missing pieces with what we know if computer technology evolves.

Decoding D.N.A is still a fairly complex and costly process with margin errors.

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

Damn shame, but science is still going to give us jet packs and hover cars right?

 

[cynicalsaint1]

Well I guess this means our only choice is to use Mad Science to genetically engineer our own damn dinosaurs.

 

[Albino Boo]

Impossible? No. Too early to say.

Our very understand of DNA is still in it's infancy. While I'll agree that we cannot "clone" the current samples, we could replicate it by filling in the missing pieces with what we know if computer technology evolves.

Decoding D.N.A is still a fairly complex and costly process with margin errors.

The article is not talking about decoding DNA but the much simpler sequencing of DNA. In 521 years half of the polypeptide bonds that form the double helix of DNA would have broken. Seeing that each strand of DNA will not have all broken in the same place, its possible to work out what the original sequence was. After 6.5 million years the fragments of DNA are to small to reconstruct the original order that adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine bases came in. After 65 million years all that would be left would the individual bases, it would like trying to reconstruct a sand castle after driving a bulldozer over it. All the bits are there but they have lost all organisation so you cant fill the missing pieces from another source.