A crazy Canadian dentist is trying to create a John Lennon clone using the late Beatle’s DNA. Michael Zuk, after purchasing one of Lennon’s rotten molars at an auction in 2011 for $31,000, is currently working with a team of researchers to see if DNA can be extracted from said gross tooth. Quoth Zuk, who also runs the website John Lennon Tooth, “I am 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.”
Ignoring that not only is this technology years and years away from being applied to people, and that maybe Julian, Sean, and Yoko might not want a cloned (or mutated) version of their dead loved one walking around, Zuk says it’s “mind-blowing…. to potentially say that [he] had a small part in bringing back one of rock’s greatest stars.”
Lennon lost the tooth in the early ‘60s and gave it to his housekeeper, Dorothy “Dot” Jarlett. She then gave it to her son, Barry, who sold it years later and so here we are. [via Dangerous Minds]