🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <7bp7eu$hc$2@whisper.globalserve.net>, on 5 Mar 1999 18:23:26 GMT, 
yuku@globalserve.net said...
> Doug Weller (dweller@ramtops.demon.co.uk) wrote on Thu, 4 Mar 1999 20:18:01 -0000:
> : In article <7bmi74$6au$2@whisper.globalserve.net>, on 4 Mar 1999 18:08:36 GMT, 
> : yuku@globalserve.net said...
> : > Superdave the Wonderchemist (thweatt@prairie.NoDak.edu) wrote on 3 Mar 1999 18:45:42 GMT:
> 
> : > : The problem with DNA testing on such old specimens is that DNA decomposes
> : > : over time.  In fact, DNA in your cells is constantly getting damaged and
> : > : decomposing.  There are enzymes in your cells that constantly travel up
> : > : and down strands of DNA looking for damage.  If the damage is repairable,
> : > : other enzymes come along and fix it.  If not, the cell commits suicide.
> : > : In rare cases the cell becomes a cancer cell.  Most cancer cells ae
> : > : destroyed by your immune system before they cause any problems, though.
> : > : Without these inspectors and mechanics running around repairing DNA, it
> : > : eventually fragments and decomposes.  Ten thousand year-dead mammoths,
> : > : even frozen in permafrost, have little left of their DNA longer than ten
> : > : thousand base pairs.  A ten thousand year-old human skull which was not
> : > : frozen, should not yield anything very useful in any DNA test.
> : > 
> : > So are you saying that since the tests will be difficult to do, therefore
> : > we shouldn't even try?
> 
> : Not in the article I'm replying to, perhaps you have a different version that 
> : magically changes when you reply to it.  I don't see anything that suggests it 
> : would be difficult, a lot that says it would be meaningless.
> 
> You're too clued out, Doug, sorry... Obviously the scientists who were
> doing these tests, before they were stopped by the US govt, didn't think
> they were just wasting their time?
> 

How about responding to what's written once in a while, Yuri, instead of going 
off on a new tangent.  I was commenting on your earlier inability to do this, 
so you respond by doing it again!

Doug
-- 
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