Science & Tech
Jake Brigstock
Sep 11, 2024
Ranker Inc. / VideoElephant
A scientist has explained why Jurassic Park will never happen in real life, leaving a number of social media users crestfallen - but others are having none of it.
Dr Beth Shapiro, from the American biotechnology and genetic engineering company Colossal Bioscience, has been looking into the idea of 'de-extinction' as shown in the popular movie Jurassic Park.
Jurassic Park is a classic movie from director Steven Spielberg that released in 1993, in which a theme park of cloned dinosaurs goes very wrong indeed.
In the film, scientists use frog DNA in place of missing genomes which eventually backfires.
In a Facebook reel, Dr Shapiro said: "Core to Colossal's mission is this idea of de-extinction and when most people think of de-extinction, one very specific image comes to mind."
An image of a tyrannosaurs rex from Jurassic Park is then shown. "But this is not what we're doing," she said.
"Dinosaurs went extinct more than 65-million-years ago. The oldest DNA that we've recovered so far is somewhere between one-and-two-million-years-old but most DNA degrades away by about 10 or 20,000 years.
"Dinosaur fossils are rocks and rocks don't have DNA. It is also not possible to recover DNA from mosquitoes preserved in amber. Trust me, I've tried it.
"There is no DNA in mosquitoes in amber, there is no DNA in dinosaur fossils, dinosaur de-extinction is not going to happen. I am very sorry."
A scientist has explained why Jurassic Park won't happen - and people have been left crestfallen / iShootPhotosLLC, iStock
This reel was shared to Reddit and a number of Redditors were dissapointed, with others saying the right solution just hasn't been found yet.
One user said: "Not with that attitude."
Another commented: "All I'm hearing is problems. Come to me with a solution!"
"Life, uh... Finds a way," one posted.
Another said: "I don't think she's 'very sorry' at all... She's a big party pooper."
"Thanks for ruining Jurassic Park Nancy Negative... Just because YOU can't do it doesn't mean Hammond can't," one commented.
Dr Shapiro has previously said imperfect de-extinction could be possible but it would take a lot to achieve.
Watch this space...
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