|
|
|
|
Raul Cano: Mining the Amber-Entombed Treasure |
| Section: NATURAL SCIENCE / SCIENTISTS: PAST AND PRESENT |
| Author: John Soennichsen |
| Publication:
The World & I Online |
| Issue Date: 1/1/1996 |
| Size: 2,930 Words, 18,066 Characters |
|
Chapter one of a science fiction blockbuster? Novelist Michael Crichton certainly thought so when he penned his novel Jurassic Park. Film director Steven Spielberg agreed when he turned that novel into the highest-grossing film of all time. And what was the impact on microbiologist Raul Cano?
"All it did was keep me tied to the phone answering questions about DNA research," he recalls, laughing. "For three weeks I couldn't get a thing done in my lab!"
No, Raul Cano doesn't clone dinosaurs. But, as a microbiologist at California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo, he was the first to successfully complete the biological process that stimulated the best-selling book and record-breaking motion picture. In fact, it was as the movie opened in theaters around the world in 1993 that Cano and his Cal Poly research team announced the first successful cloning of prehistoric DNA, a feat they had been attempting for several months. Needless to say, this announcement unleashed a deluge of calls by nationwide print and broadcast representatives, all anxious to know if Jurassic Park was anything close to reality.
"No," they were told emphatically by Cano, "cloning dinosaurs is pure science fiction." Even so, the research he performs on a regular basis continues to stimulate media coverage and debate among scientists--more, perhaps, than any other biological research over the past few decades. And Cano's latest findings (published in 1995 but first discovered in 1991) are in many respects more earth-shaking than his 1993 announcement.
Getting his ducks in a row
What, exactly, has Raul Cano announced this time, and why did he keep it a secret for more than three years? To understand his accomplishment, reported in the May 1995 issue of Science, one must first under...
Read Full Article
...e evolved. We also hope to learn why certain microorganisms are resistant to radiation and others aren't. Our suspicions are that it's all related to gene structure; further research should help us understand this better. In essence, the kind of research I do isn't scary or threatening. It's about where we've been and where we're going. It's all about life and learning to understand it better."
(1,837 of 18,066 characters)
|
|
|
Publication Details
(The World & I Online) |
|
The World & I Online is a
comprehensive academic resource that encompasses a broad range of
articles by scholars and experts in the areas of Global Studies,
Liberal Arts, Fine & Applied Arts, General Science, and Spanish.
Originally published monthly in print as The World & I, our site
includes the complete contents since 1986 and continues to publish
a new issue online each month. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
