theoretically...

Next stop, Jurassic Park? Researchers in Montana say that they have managed to extract not DNA, but proteins, blood-borne compounds and perhaps nucleic acids from well-preserved bones of Tyrannosaurus rex. The team at Montana State University, led by Mary Schweitzer, used liquid chromatography to find organic materials in the bone. The team did manage to extract haem, the oxygen-carrying part of the haemoglobin molecule found in blood. But there's no DNA in red blood cells, even if those had survived. Scientists are still dubious about the long-term chances of extracting paleolithic DNA from fossils because of the degradation of the nucleic acid chains.

Two prominent German molecular biologists "systematically fabricated" research results in the early 1990s, according to a panel of legal and scientific experts meeting in Bonn, who heard evidence about Marion Brach, of the University of Lubeck, and Friedhelm Herrmann, a former colleague. If the allegations of fraud are proven then the researchers might be sued for the return of roughly pounds 350,000 in grant funding which they received from a cancer research charity. Brach has admitted fabricating results in four papers published between 1994 and 1996, though Herrmann denies the charges but refused to comment, and did not attend the panel's meeting. As many as 24 scientific papers published between 1990 and 1996 could be involved.