Challenging Nature: The Clash of Science and Spirituality at the New Frontiers of Life is a 2006 book written by Lee M. Silver, professor of molecular biology at Princeton University, New Jersey. The book is centered around genetic engineering.
Recreating Dinosaurs[]
The Jurassic Park films and novels are mentioned many times in the book. In the pages 312-313, Professor Silver argues that it may be possible to recreate dinosaurs by designing their DNA on a computer, starting with a virtual chicken genome:
"...evolutionary developmental geneticists believe that comparisons of DNA in birds and reptiles -on either side of the evolutionary line leading to dinosaurs- could provide some, although not complete, insight into the extinct genome of dinosaurs. Genetic, developmental, and evolutionary understanding and data could be combined with molecular understanding to allow rational design of a dinosaur on a computer. Starting with a virtual chicken genome, virtual genetic changes could be implemented to increase overall adult size, eliminate feathers and restore scales, turn wings back into elongated front and back legs, and mold the virtual animal into a reasonable facsimile of a particular dinosaur, such as a giant long-necked apatosaurus, a triceratops, or even a Tyrannosaurus rex. The designed electronic genome would be converted into organic DNA with nano-DNA writing machines that automatically link up thousands of smaller DNA fragments into whole chromosomes. The genome would then be inserted into a chicken egg devoid of its own DNA -in an advanced version of the process that created Dolly- and presto, dinosaur facsimiles."