Via Marginal Revolution comes a report of a company that is apparently making diamond rings using (and don’t ask me how this works) Beethoven’s DNA, extracted from remnants of the great composer’s hair. I’m curious: How good is the sample that can be extracted at this point? Because, at the risk of giving Leon Kass hives, I think it would be incredibly cool to be able to clone a few Beethovens. In lots of cases, it’s impossible to say to what extent genius springs from innate, genetic capacities as opposed to upbringing. But in the case of musical prodigies like Beethoven and Mozart, their incredible talents were so evident so young that, even though both were certainly encouraged (in Beethoven’s case perhaps to the point of abuse) to develop their abilities, it’s hard not to conclude that their gifts were waiting in their wiring, ready to emerge so long as environment provided the opportunity. Next step, base pair–mining history’s greats for genetic mash-ups.
Roll Out the Beethovens
February 16th, 2007 · 2 Comments
Tags: Science
2 responses so far ↓
1 Chris Grigsby // Feb 17, 2007 at 8:17 pm
Well, the only thing is that they have to evenly distribute the clones secretly. You can’t bring up a kid knowing he’s Mozart. I mean, he would never live up to the expectations. Hell, he might venture into different genres if left alone. Could you imagine Mozart doing jazz? Yes, it sounds weird, but that’s only if we take the fully-developed, classical Mozart into consideration. But if he grew up playing jazz, not knowing that he was “supposed” to play classical, it would be freakin’ cool.
2 dd // Feb 18, 2007 at 10:13 am
My understanding is that human hair contains proteins but not DNA (except where some skin cells attach to the follicles). So even if the vendor has a preserved hair sample, and turns the carbon in the sample into diamonds, the marketing is flawed.