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Jurassic Park – Scientific Fact or Hollywood Fiction? Steven Spielberg’s successful sci-fi adventure film follows two dinosaur experts – Dr Alan and Dr Ellie Sattler – as they are invited by the eccentric millionaire John Hammond to visit his new amusement park on an island off Costa Rica before it opens to the public. By cloning DNA taken from prehistoric mosquitoes, Hammond has created living dinosaurs for his new Jurassic Park. Accompanied by Hammond’s two grandchildren, they are sent on a tour through Jurassic Park in computer-controlled cars. But a tropical storm hits the island, knocking out the power supply, and an employee destroys the security system so that he can steal dinosaur embryos and sell them. The dinosaurs start to get out of control… So, since it is possible to clone sheep, is it possible to clone dinosaurs? Or is this just Hollywood? First, any DNA that has been taken from a preserved mosquito is only 40 million years old, so even if any DNA was found, the mosquitoes need to be much older, and as far as we know, mosquitoes that old do not exist. Second, although it is possible to find preserved mosquitoes, only one male has been recovered. In fact, only females can absorb the DNA of another creature. Also, there is no way of knowing if the DNA was from a dinosaur or not. Since there has been no previous discovery of dinosaurs, there is nothing to compare the new sample with. Thirdly, dinosaur DNA would not be intact after the long period of time since their extinction. When life ends, DNA breaks down and does not repair itself. Many questions also arise in the cloning of dinosaurs. Some of these questions are: What will be needed to raise a baby dinosaur from childhood successfully? What kinds of conditions do dinosaurs need to survive? What are the diets of dinosaurs? What kinds of care would dinosaurs need in their adult lives? What would be done to protect humans from dinosaurs and vice versa? What ethical and human rights issues are raised by cloning? So cloning dinosaurs seems scientifically impossible. The world is not ready for it and the materials that are needed are not yet available. Even if it was possible to bring dinosaurs back to life they probably could not survive in the present day environment. Temperature, air, disease, and plants are all different today than in the era of dinosaurs. Dinosaurs are used to a completely different world and would find great difficulty living here. The only place that dinosaurs seem to exist today is in Hollywood. 侏罗纪公园———科学事实还是好莱坞神话? 史蒂文o斯皮尔伯格的成功科幻探险电影故事是伴随着这样的情节开始的———两位恐龙专家———艾伦博士和埃利o萨特勒博士———应古怪的百万富翁约翰o哈蒙德的邀请,在他的位于哥斯达黎加外岛屿上的新的娱乐公园对公众开放前去拜访他。通过克隆从史前的蚊子身上提取的DNA,哈蒙德为他的新侏罗纪公园创造出了活恐龙。在哈蒙德的两位孙子的陪伴下,他们被送到电脑控制的轿车中进行环绕侏罗纪公园的旅行。但是一场热带风暴袭击了岛屿,摧毁了电力供应,一个雇员破坏了安全系统,因此他能偷出恐龙胚胎并卖掉它们。恐龙开始失去控制…… 这样看来,既然克隆羊是可能的,那有可能克隆恐龙吗?或者说这只是好莱坞的神话吗?首先,任何从保存的蚊子身上提取的DNA都是四千万年前的。恐龙至少有六千万年的历史,因此即使任何DNA被发现, 那些蚊子也需要年代更久远些,不过据我们所知,那么久远的蚊子是不存在的。 其次,虽然找到保存的蚊子是可能的,但只有一只公蚊子已被发现。事实上,只有母蚊子才能吸取另一种生物的DNA。而且,没有方法得知这DNA是否是从恐龙身上获得的。既然以前还没有发现过恐龙,就无法与新的样本进行比较。 再次,恐龙DNA自从它们灭绝以来的很长一段时间后将不是完整的。当生命结束后,DNA分解并且不能自我修复。 恐龙的克隆过程会产生许多问题。一些问题是:需要做什么来成功地抚养仅有几个月的幼恐龙?恐龙需要在什么样的环境中生存下去?恐龙的饮食是什么样的?恐龙在它们成年后的生活中需要什么样的照顾?需要做什么来保护人类免遭恐龙的伤害,反之亦然?克隆会提出什么样的道德或人权问题? 因此,克隆恐龙在科学上似乎是不可能的。世界没有为它准备好而且需要的物质原料也是不能获得的。即使真有可能让恐龙复活,它们在目前的环境中也不一定能存活下去。今日的温度、空气、疾病和植物都完全不同于恐龙时代。恐龙已习惯于生存在一个完全不同的世界里,它们会发现很难在现今这样的环境中生存下去。如今恐龙似乎能生存的惟一地方是在好莱坞。 |
