Slashdot Mirror
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."
... cloned from a little piece ... oOooo OOOO ooooOOooo...
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.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Even if this were possible, why should that new life be forced to play guitar for this nutcase? Maybe clone Lennon has other ambitions. Maybe work for 3 years on the moon... Clone rights people!
First they clone Lennon. Then they clone Stallon. Soon enough, they've cloned Hittlor.
Dr. Alan Grant: [finding egg shells] Oh my God. Do you know what this is? This is a Beatle egg. The pop stars are breeding.
Tim: But Grandpa said all the Beatles were men.
Dr. Alan Grant: Lady Gaga DNA.
Lex: What's that?
Dr. Alan Grant: Well, on the tour, the film said they used Lady Gaga's DNA to fill in the gene sequence gaps. They mutated the Beatle genetic code and blended it with that of a crazy bitch who dresses like a homeless person having a fit in a garbage can, but comes up with incredibly catchy melodies. Now, Lady Gaga has been known to spontaneously change sex from male to female depending on which angle she gets photographed from. Malcolm was right. Look...
[we see a trail of baby Beatle footprints]
Dr. Alan Grant: Life found a way.
which is totally what she said
John Lennon 2.0 will keep his surrogate parents up all night, then turn to alcohol to "deal" with his fame, flunk out of school and find inspiration in the works of Kid Rock, because fuck you.
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.
null
You would think the Lennon estate would have copyright over the DNA, or does this law need writing yet...
...revive Jesus, assuming we can ever find any DNA we presume to be his)
The Turin Shroud is full of it.
No sig today...
At first I thought cloning a human at would be extremely cruel because of what happened to Dolly the sheep, but then I used teh Googlz and found that scientist have subsequently cloned Rhesus monkeys with success. So now I only think it would be totally reckless to clone a human, given how limited our understanding of its long-term consequences are.
[Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
> Dr. Michael Zuk.
Let's have a vote. Is this guy
A) A complete fucking moron
B) A self-publicising scam artist?
Personally, I can't see any third option.
C) All of the above.
There you go...
C) He made a joke and a journalist decided to take him seriously.
The clone will not necessarily have any musical talent at all. Take a look at any pair of identical twins as they grow up. They start with extreme similarities and end up completely different. As we go through adolescence we naturally seek our own identity. John Lennon sought his in his music and became an icon of his times. A clone of him would naturally seek his own identity with the same vigour and would likely choose not to play music as that would be to follow rather than to seek an individual identity. For the experiment to succeed the clone would not only have to grow up in the same environment but also without any knowledge of John Lennon.
I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?!?
Imagine reincarnation
It's easy if you try
Only one tooth is needed
No one ever needs to die...
"Damn it, I hate Slashdot on April Fools day"...
Then I realized it was October. I think I have 4/1 PTSD.
Jesus did exist; of course he was not as described. He was just a man, and a con man at that.
I've never met a dentist who wasn't just a third rate doctor with steady hands.
I'm not saying there aren't any - I'm saying they're very rare.
The Turin Shroud is full of it.
Interesting turn of phrase.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
I believe that the use of someone's DNA for any purpose in the UK requires informed consent, as with other medical procedures. For example it was recently established that if individual's gametes are used in IVF, that person's consent is needed before implantation can take place, even if they consented to the earlier stages. (The case involved a couple who underwent IVF but later divorced, and the fate of the embryos that were kept in storage after the original procedure. Really tragic for all involved.) In typical medical cases when an individual cannot give informed consent, that responsibility is transferred to their next of kin or other legally appointed representative, so at the minimum you'd need someone to give permission.
It'd be an interesting one to test. Would Ono be able to provide consent on her own, or would his sons also have to provide permission? How far up and down the blood line would permission go?
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
Fine, do beta testing on pop-stars. And when technology is proven and tested then clone Einstein.
#
#\ @ ? Colonize Mars
#
As many have pointed out, to have even a remote chance of a John Lennon clone being anything like the original, you would have to recreate his upbringing like they did in The Boys from Brazil with (Godwin alert!) the Hitler clones. That includes finding a crazy Japanese lady to tear the cloned Beatles apart again.
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*
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Well it's a *little* closer than that. A clone is essentially an identical twin sibling conceived at a later date. And if there's anything identical twin studies have shown us it's that "the blank slate" is a bunch of malarkey - the similarities between identical twins separated at birth who meet decades later can be almost creepy. They named their children the same thing? How does *that* work? Of course there's plenty of differences too, so nurture is clearly playing a role as well. I believe the generally accepted nature/nurture importance ratio is somewhere around 50/50.
Conceivably it would/could even inherit some epigenetic traits developed over the original's lifetime as well, but that's still a long way from a brain backup. Of course it would by necessity have also grown in a completely different womb environment and inherited it's cytoplasm from a different mother - that will doubtless introduce all sorts of minor differences in the initial conditions. The same blueprints followed by another factory as it were.
Okay, okay, so here we go - we clone Hitler, but use an egg from a black woman, gestated in an Asian host-mother, and fostered with a Jewish family who loves Mexican food. Hilarity ensues.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
"I possess the DNA of Leonard Nimoy! Do you realize what this means? All I need is a healthy ovum and I could grow my own Leonard Nimoy!"
Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
Holy wars in this case are not exaggerations, what happens if he has the same symptoms as where associated with his "twin" and we can show they are epilepsy rather than just suggest from the symptoms described (as we can now).....
Nonbelievers continue to believe that He was just a philosopher/preacher who created a schism in the Jewish faith. Believers believe that God made him that way to better maintain his contact with the Holy Spirit while subjected to the distractions of a corporeal existence. Nothing much changes.
A far more interesting question is what happens when it's discovered that he was black? (Come on "hair like lamb's wool"? That's not an Aryan they're describing.)
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
There's only one way to find out!
He is the egg man.
Perhaps unsurprisingly though identical twins separated at birth often show far more similarities than those raised together. Presumably since they don't have a motivation to develop individuality in opposition to each other.
So, raised without knowledge of his ancestry little Johnny might well develop with many of the same interests and talents as Lennon. Not that he might not express them as YouTube cat videos instead. If aware of his ancestry from a young age then I see one of two things happening - either he becomes fascinated by his clone-father and strives to follow in his footprints, or he sets off in a completely different direction in order to establish his independent individuality. I'm guessing option #3 - he doesn't give a damn and becomes whatever person he was going to anyway probably wouldn't be possible if raised by the sort of people who would clone Lennon and then tell him about it at a young age.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
So the "mad scientist" stereotype has been amended with the "mad dentist"?
bickerdyke
If I were a dentist, I would clone myself from a tooth
To obtain a complete sequence suitable for cloning you would need a DNA sample that was obtained from living tissue and either processed immediately or suitably frozen in the interim. DNA starts to degrade pretty quickly. That's why nobody is going to clone Lennon or any mammoths any time soon. Regarding the mammoths: yes, they've been fozen but they're discovered as the ice thaws (by which time the damage has been done).
soylentnews.org
Obligatory C.S. Lewis reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis's_trilemma
"We receive as friendly that which agrees with, we resist with dislike that which opposes us" - Faraday
D) Someone who thinks the human gene pool would benefit from a bit more Lennon.
Honestly if cloning people ever becomes a "thing" I think I would be in favor of cloning many of the historical geniuses - artists, engineers, philosophers, etc. No, they won't be copies of the original, but will likely have many of the same innate aptitudes and talents. What they do with them would remain to be seen, but they would probably have more to contribute to humanity than most people. And who can argue against a little more genius in the gene pool?
Okay, fine, geniuses have a tendency to be less bound by social morality, often dramatically so. I'm sure there's a certain portion of Conservatives that would disapprove beyond even the "tampering in God's domain" aspect.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
Get one! This is not April 1st!
FYI, nobody will own the rights to this person and what they may or may not produce...except he himself.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
I think it would be hilarious if they did this, and the baby came out black, or Asian. Or female. (Or Yoko Ono!) In fact, maybe this is just an extreme case of buyer's remorse. The dentist is feeling like an idiot for paying $30k for a tooth that supposedly came from John Lennon. Now instead of feeling like a sucker, he can rationalize that it was an investment. Maybe he can even write it off on his taxes.
And if there's anything identical twin studies have shown us it's that "the blank slate" is a bunch of malarkey - the similarities between identical twins separated at birth who meet decades later can be almost creepy. They named their children the same thing? How does *that* work?
Names fall into and out of fashion, so parents of the same age having children at roughly the same time are m ore likely to name their kids something similar? Ever heard someone say "that sounds like an old person's name"? That's because certain names were popular during our grandparent's generation that are no longer popular today. Of course, I am assuming in your reference that the separated twins named their children something relatively normal and common and not something weird or essentially made up.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
Will the clone still enjoy John's favourite chocolate beverage?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Worked with Kahless.
and this would be an extreme version of Twin Syndrome (you could maybe possibly copy the physical body but not the "Spirit" portions)
The Value of The Holy BedSheet is not the artifact but the Faith focused on it.
Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
They used a walrus egg, man.
I'll get me coat.
.
Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
I mean society is fundamentally stupid so the moment you announce this it's instant controversy.
Just do it, and in 20 years when a new John Lennon emerges in the music scene you can tell people to shut the fuck up and enjoy the music.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
Dammit Jim!
I'm a doctor not a DNA cloner! If you want to clone Spock, you had better find a "Genesis Planet".
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
Wouldn't cloning Lenin be more interesting?
love is just extroverted narcissism
OMG, if this works, maybe Tupac really will come back.
There simply aren't enough drugs around to re-create the Beatles "talent" these days.
There is no music - home taping killed it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1d-aWMQuoS4 :P
I mean, look at the difference in interests and abilities of millions of clones, er, twins, triplets, etc. And the clone won't, of course, have even *vaguely* the same background - parentage, location and environment growing up, friends, etc.
If he does it, I see a "great" career... as a John Lennon imitator.
mark
Umm, yes.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Yoko Ono could be the surrogate!
Pretty sure john lennon would frown on copying people...
For hire.
Finally, we can have a real life Clone High!
Imagine you're a douche bag
It's easy if you try.
No cells to grow us.
Just self-promoting guys...
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
I say we make a Ghola. It's quite simple:
1. Clone John from the tooths DNA.
2. Let him grow to desired age.
3. Awake his original memories by making him endure a terrible psychological trauma. Showing him a current pic of Yoko might do the trick.
A person is much more than their DNA. This new version will grow up in a different world and be a different person.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Upon further inspection, it would appear that this "tooth" is actually a walrus tusk.
In Soviet Russia, dot slashes YOU!
This looks roughly unethical. There is no law against such Pygmalion's practice in the US?
It'd be just like starting ova.