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>> DNA has a half life of ~500 years. Could you describe half life here? So suppose the strands are now small snippets. If you find enough, couldnt you overlap
by TuringNYC 7y ago
>> DNA has a half life of ~500 years.
Could you describe half life here? So suppose the strands are now small snippets. If you find enough, couldnt you overlap common parts and eventually re-construct the full length?
- empath75 7y agoIt means half of the dna is destroyed every 500 years. After 65,000,000 years, you have 1/(2^130,000)th of the original DNA left, which is to say, none at all.
- varenc 7y agoDNA half-life isn't an immutable property of the material like radioactive half-life is. The environment has an effect. The DNA in cryogenically preserved tissue should have a much longer half life.
- TuringNYC 7y agoCurious what the half life would be for dinosaur blood within Amber (per the book)?
- mkl 7y agoIt seems to depend mostly on temperature and moisture: dry, cold, and unchanging are best. We have good DNA from Deniovans because it was recovered from bones and teeth that sat buried in a cave in Siberia for 50k years. Being in amber might protect from moisture, but I think the temperature and temperature swings would still likely destroy it within thousands of years.