Magical Mystery Tooth: Dentist Teams Up With Scientists to Clone Beatle DNA

Dentistry Today

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Dentistry Today reported almost two years ago that John Lennon’s tooth was purchased at an auction by a Canadian dentist. Now, that same dentist, Dr. Michael Zuk, is teaming up with scientists to decode the famous rock legend’s DNA.

The tooth has already had a whirlwind life, especially for something that was rotten and pulled more than 50 years ago: it has traveled the United Kingdom on an oral-cancer awareness tour, and a piece of it was integrated in a sculpture, on display to help provide cleft-palate surgery for impoverished children.

Dr. Zuk remains hopeful that a living clone of John Lennon could be possible, having created a Web site dedicated to the extraction of DNA from the tooth. Time Magazine reports, however, that Dr. Zuk plans to keep the results of the DNA testing confidential (for now).