Lizard DNA

My group of Grade 5s are an interesting bunch. And they also have to be kept interested. Little anecdotes and stories keep them that way.

One thing lead to another and the subject of lizards re-growing their tails came up. Suddenly, a light bulb went 'ting' in my brain.

I was thinking of amputees and people involved in accidents whereby they have lost their limbs. Now, why can't scientists think of a way to utilise the amazing ability of lizards and somehow incorporate that to re-grow limbs on human beings?

I am no genome expert ( far from it ) but my guess is, there MUST be a way around the mixing of reptile and human DNA. After all, they did it in Jurassic Park. Sexy Jeff Goldblum became a quite un-sexy human fly. Wait, I am getting my truth mixed up with fiction. But then, the truth is always stranger than fiction.

My imagination began to run wild. What if, at some meal, a fly buzzed by and instead of swatting it, my tongue sort of lashes out and 'slurped' the fly into my mouth! Eew! Or, instead of re-growing my limbs, I am growing a new tail!!!!!!!

Let's pause for a moment and consider this; if this teory works, anybody can re-grow limbs, with added lizard DNA. I could hack off my bad leg and re-grow a good one. I will be able to dance properly again.

Later that evening, I happened to mention this 'light bulb' moment to the Advanced class. Sandy enlightened me even further by telling me that scientists HAVE thought about it. In fact, they are now trying to figure out how to do it, since mixing human DNA and reptile DNA is not possible in reality........YET