All we are saying is give teeth a chance. A dentist who bought one of John Lennon‘s teeth at an auction for $30,000 is hoping to use the tooth to sequence the ex-Beatle‘s DNA, and clone him.
Lennon (who was shot dead in New York in 1980) gave his extracted molar tooth as possibly the grossest gift ever to his housekeeper (you may say she’s a cleaner) in the 1960’s. The tooth has been in the possession of Canadian dentist Dr Michael Zuk since 2011, and has taken part in several charitable initiatives since then, including a “Tooth Tour” of the UK to raise awareness of oral cancer. Now the tooth is in the hands of US mad scientists, who are working on ways to extract Lennon’s genetic code from the specimen.
Dr Zuk has an official John Lennon Tooth website, which (we so wish we were joking about this) automatically plays the dentist’s own recording of a parody song called – wait for it – “Love Me Tooth”. Dr Zuk states on the website: “Many Beatles fans remember where they were when they heard John Lennon was shot. I hope they also live to hear the day he was given another chance.”
The idea is dental as anything, but the tooth of the matter is that Dr Zuk is “nervous and excited at the possibility that we will be able to fully sequence John Lennon’s DNA, very soon I hope. With researchers working on ways to clone mammoths, the same technology certainly could make human cloning a reality,” according to The Examiner. “To potentially say I had a small part in bringing back one of rock’s greatest stars would be mind-blowing”.
Via The Examiner
