Summary of an Article About DNA Science

Summary

It’s not as easy as you may think to revive extinct species, such as the whole idea from which Jurassic Park stem from. DNA degrades over time therefore no actual dinosaur DNA has been found in fossils or from other sources. A more practical approach is to take a modern dinosaur most commonly a bird, which are closely related to the T rex and velociraptor and by messing around with how the embryo of that bird develops, we are able to silence some of its modern adaptations and allow prehistoric genetic instructions to take over.

Currently, researchers aim to revive the most recently known species, the woolly mammoth which has been extinct for over 4000 years ago, but even after that much amount of time scientist were able to retrieve fragments of their DNA and were able to piece together how the mammoth had looked like. The question is why? Why the need to bring back extinct animals, some scientists argue that it was humans rather than climate change that had killed off the mammoths and reviving them would be symbolic in a way.

Another reason is the fact that people want to revert to the way the planet used to be, for example the savannah are very diverse in animals, however Europe used to be like that and so is North America and even the arctic. It is known that reviving these species may cause deaths of humans but Kornfeldt the author says, “it is an acceptable price to pay for a more exciting environment. ”

Reflection

Why might this story be interesting to non-scientists? This article represents the true power of science. I think non-scientists never realized how flexible science can be. Knowing how DNA are the roots of life and intelligence scientists were able to manipulate DNA to their liking, for example dolly the sheep which is an exact clone of another sheep and now possibly having the ability to revive ancient species is remarkable. For non-scientists this can very well be a fictional story with clones and resurrection involved, but all forms of stories come from some form of truth. This would be interesting to regular people because it seems like magic until you breakdown the science behind DNA and how it really works.

Also, I think the anticipation of seeing an extinct species that you’ve only seen from a textbook in real life can be a rememberable experience.

Finally, the potential of this technology is also very fascinating. Is it possible in the future that we can revive the dead or loved ones?