{draw:rect} {draw:rect} {draw:rect} {draw:rect} Biotechnology and Genomics Essay Recreation of a Dead Species November 13, 2008 Jessica Even if one, hypothetically, had ten intact genes from a dinosaur, why might it still be impossible to create a dinosaur? Paleontologists and anthropologists have been using this method for more than ten years as a window into the past. They still have not determined how much of the distant past they will be able to see through this “window.” There are still some very important questions that need to be answered before the effectiveness of this exploration will be successful. Such as, how long can DNA survive?, how much genetic information can be retrieved from this degraded DNA?, and how trustworthy is the extraction process. “Still, that has not stopped scientists at more than a score of research institutions who have been enjoying themselves enormously in applying the method to the DNA of objects as diverse as ancient Andean corn, prehistoric Florida Indian brains, flightless New Zealand birds, leaves preserved in shale for 17 million years and living bacteria from the gut of a 12,000-year-old mastodon found in Ohio. In the latter case, for example, scientists have found that these bacteria, which may have been in suspended animation since their host was killed, now thrive in laboratory cultures.” (Scientists) This P.C.R. is already being used in solving crimes by identifying criminals; it is also being used to diagnose diseases, and detecting predispositions to cancers. There are still scientists from different fields that are very hopeful that they will one day be able to use this technique to create a living dinosaur from living DNA. As stated in an article published in the New York Times, “In 1982, Dr. Poinar and his wife, Dr. Roberta Hess, both of the University of California at Berkeley, obtained and examined a 40-million-year-old chunk of amber in which a female fungus gnat was embedded. The tissues and cells of...