5 ms·

Can we use some of the skin and soft tissue to recreate the dinosaur using CRISPR?

giarc 9y ago
I believe the issue is that DNAs half life is short (521 years in bone[1]) so after 110 million years, the DNA is pretty degraded. 1. http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/32799/title/Half-Life-of-DNA-Revealed/ http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/32799/...
- perseusprime11 9y ago
  Is it possible to use deep learning to fill out the missing parts? I am guessing that DNA is like code with a set of instructions encoded.
  - wil421 9y ago
    You could always fill in the gaps with amphibian DNA.
    - giarc 9y ago
      I imagine that is a Jurassic Park reference and not an actual suggestion. However, if it is, you would just then end up with a frog.
      - wil421 9y ago
        You're right we should just build humanoid robots for the guests instead.
        asadlionpk 9y ago
        building either of those leads to violent ends.
  - objclxt 9y ago
    > Is it possible to use deep learning to fill out the missing parts? The half life is 521 years - there is nothing left to fill in. If you read the linked article you'll see even under perfect conditions all DNA is destroyed after about 6 million years. This fossil is 110 million years old.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
  - biot 9y ago
    If you use deep learning, the missing parts will be filled with something based on whatever you trained the model on. In other words, the training data won't be dinosaur DNA as we don't have that. At best, during training you can classify some DNA as "more dinosaur" and other DNA as "less dinosaur" and you hope the result will be some extrapolation towards "most dinosaur". Despite the practical limitations, it's certainly an interesting thought.
    - perseusprime11 9y ago
      What if the training set is evolution data? To me CRISPR + Deep Learning seems like a powerful combination. Looking to see some amazing advances in this area.
- 0xdeadbeefbabe 9y ago
  Can we use CRISPR to create something from ~500 year old bones? Okay, I already know the answer.
plink 9y ago
There is no skin nor soft tissue, just fossilization of them.

I believe the issue is that DNAs half life is short (521 years in bone[1]) so after 110 million years, the DNA is pretty degraded. 1. http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/32799/title/Half-Life-of-DNA-Revealed/ http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/32799/...

perseusprime11 9y ago
Is it possible to use deep learning to fill out the missing parts? I am guessing that DNA is like code with a set of instructions encoded.
- wil421 9y ago
  You could always fill in the gaps with amphibian DNA.
  - giarc 9y ago
    I imagine that is a Jurassic Park reference and not an actual suggestion. However, if it is, you would just then end up with a frog.
    - wil421 9y ago
      You're right we should just build humanoid robots for the guests instead.
      - asadlionpk 9y ago
        building either of those leads to violent ends.
- objclxt 9y ago
  > Is it possible to use deep learning to fill out the missing parts? The half life is 521 years - there is nothing left to fill in. If you read the linked article you'll see even under perfect conditions all DNA is destroyed after about 6 million years. This fossil is 110 million years old.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
- biot 9y ago
  If you use deep learning, the missing parts will be filled with something based on whatever you trained the model on. In other words, the training data won't be dinosaur DNA as we don't have that. At best, during training you can classify some DNA as "more dinosaur" and other DNA as "less dinosaur" and you hope the result will be some extrapolation towards "most dinosaur". Despite the practical limitations, it's certainly an interesting thought.
  - perseusprime11 9y ago
    What if the training set is evolution data? To me CRISPR + Deep Learning seems like a powerful combination. Looking to see some amazing advances in this area.
0xdeadbeefbabe 9y ago
Can we use CRISPR to create something from ~500 year old bones? Okay, I already know the answer.

plink 9y ago

There is no skin nor soft tissue, just fossilization of them.