Dinosaurs will
never be cloned
Summary:
Scientists
are able to read the DNA of cells and find out their genetic makeup. We can’t
yet create new copies of an animal artificially, but it is a hope for the
future. With the concept of cloning, many new possible ideas could be explored,
such as what exactly certain no-extinct species looked/acted like. However,
there is a problem. The DNA of dinosaurs has a half-life of 521 years, far less
than the time they went extinct. The only way for there to be enough readable
DNA to clone something would be if it existed after 1.5 million years ago.
After 6.8 million, the DNA would be nearly completely decayed. As enzymes and
micro-organisms break down the DNA, the information is lost even more quickly. In
other words, we will never be able to clone dinosaur DNA, as it already too
deconstructed to accurately analyze. However, while we can’t do experiments on
dinosaurs, other, more recent animals (such as the wooly mammoth) are not out
of the question.
Relevance:
This
relates to our class in 3 ways. Firstly, it involves DNA, a nucleic acid and
one of the main macromolecules in our body, holding our genetic material. Also,
it talks about half-life, or how long it takes for half of a quantity of an
isotope of an atom to decay into a different form, which is used in dating materials
and was talked about in our discussion of atoms and isotopes. Also, It involves
enzymes and microorganisms, 2 more topics discussed in our cell unit.
Why does DNA have a half-life? Is the DNA like a protein in that it denatures? Or is it because certain isotopes (of the atoms in DNA) are unstable?
ReplyDeleteHow do scientists determine how long the half-life of the DNA is?
ReplyDelete