Dentist Wants To Clone John Lennon Using DNA Extracted From Lennon's Tooth

dryriver writes "People fantasizing about a Beatles comeback tour might yet see their dream come true, all thanks to Dr. Michael Zuk. This dentist is the proud owner of one of John Lennon's teeth, and hopes to use it to clone the musician. By the looks of it, Dr. Michael Zuk came in possession of the tooth in 2011. At that time, he purchased the molar at an auction organized in the United Kingdom, and paid about $30,000 (€22,424) for it. According to The Inquisitr, the dentist is now working alongside scientists in the United States, who are helping him figure out a way to extract DNA from the tooth without damaging it in the process. This DNA would serve to bring back John Lennon. Apparently, Dr. Michael Zuk hopes that his project will snowball into a scientific and pop-cultural revolution. 'To potentially say I had a small part in bringing back one of Rock's greatest stars would be mind-blowing. I am nervous and excited at the possibility that we will be able to fully sequence John Lennon's DNA, very soon I hope,' the dentist reportedly commented on the importance of his work."

Comments

Fantasists

[AmiMoJo]

It seems like most people don't understand what cloning is. They think that they will get John Lennon, but actually they will get a baby that looks exactly like John Lennon but doesn't have his personality or memories, or any learned talents for that matter.

Re:Fantasists

[tverbeek]

I would never go to a dentist whose grasp of biology was this tenuous.

Re:Fantasists

[alexander_686]

And we are not even sure of that.

There are a lot of steps between fertilized egg to a adult that we are still unraveling. We know that some genes are expressed differently deepening on the conditions within the womb – nutrition, diet, etc.

And if you want an argument that cloning would not work, look at his son Julian Lennon. He looks, sings, and plays like him. If the Beatles were ever to reunite – more likely prior to George Harrison passing, Julian should have taken the place of his father. Yet Julian albums were never his fathers. Kind of a blessing and a curse.

Nature v. Nurture

[HJED]

Indeed, it would be an interesting experiment in nature vs nurture. I would suspect that you would get some aspects of his personality, but not others.
However, artists draw strongly from their cultural background, that would certainly be very different so even if his musical talent is genetic his music would be very different. That's irrelevant though, it would be extremely cruel to clone an individual with such high expectations - especially one likely to be surrounded by media all his life.

Re:Nature v. Nurture

[The Evil Atheist]

An experiment performed with every identical twin.

Re:It's a slippery slope

[Immerman]

Ad so all these folks now have much younger posthumous identical twin brothers raised in a vastly different culture. So what?

Dentist and writer both fucking idiots

[wonkey_monkey]

People fantasizing about a Beatles comeback tour might yet see their dream come true

Only if they're morons and don't understand that cloning isn't miraculous resurrection of an individual.

there is no reason why the same technological advances could not be used to resurrect rock legends.

*facepalm*

Re:Ethics of cloning

[Aranykai]

What "happened" to Dolly? Died of a normal disease that is common to that species, and even that very flock? What does that have to do with the ethical implications of cloning?