Avid Star Wars enthusiasts may remember the dilemma in the Clone Wars about the declining quality of Clone Troopers following the death of Jango Fett. The TV series, the Clone Wars, explains the situation by saying that the loss of source material, Jango’s DNA, made the later copies of DNA less effective. This resulted in the gradual decline in clone quality. If we are to assume that the technology in Star Wars is more efficient than our modern-day medicine, then the show’s reasoning for the clones wouldn’t make sense at all. The most state of the art science, PCR and CRISPR, would blow this Star Wars logic out of the water. Fiction often simplifies science in ways that reality challenges.
To understand cloning, it is vital to understand the latest technology. PCR, or polymerase chain reaction, is a lab technique that can create millions of copies of a template DNA. This technology works in three stages. Firstly, there is denaturation, which melts the DNA apart and prepares it for use. The second stage is annealing, which allows the complementary DNA to bind to the template strand. The final stage is extension, which is where a polymer attaches to the 3 prime end of DNA and synthesizes a new strand of DNA from the template. This cycle can repeat billions of times and doesn’t affect the template strand. Knowing all of this, it is ridiculous to think that the clone army could’ve ever run out of copies, especially considering they had the source for a very long period of time. From a modern scientific perspective, PCR does not use up the template strand during PCR. Therefore, a piece of the source would always be available, even if Jango had died.
You may be thinking, what if PCR was invented after the creation of the Clone Wars, in which the cloning was detailed? While this may be a valid concern, it is not true. PCR was invented long before the creation of this show. PCR was invented in 1983 by American biochemist Kary Mullis. The clone wars, on the other hand, was aired 2003 to 2008. Another potential question is, how would the DNA alterations occur in the clones? This can be easily answered using CRISPR. In one of my previous articles, I outlined how CRISPR was able to identify specific portions of DNA and alter them at the genetic level. Utilizing this method, the Kaminoans, the people who grew the clones, would easily be able to make their clones more loyal, age faster, and be overall better at taking orders. CRISPR would streamline the cloning process. By making the alterations to a single strand of DNA, PCR would be able to duplicate the ideal set of genes every time.
I attempted to research the specific methods used to grow the clones from the show, but found that it isn’t explicitly detailed. The only idea that I could pull away from it was that the clones grew quickly due to changes in their DNA. Because of their rapid growth rate, the clones are grown in large vats. While a technology like CRISPR may have been used to perform the gene alterations in Star Wars, it is never said by the creator or by any of the characters in the show, so it cannot be confidently determined.
The clones have chips implanted into them, which makes them more loyal. While this strays from the topic of genetics, there are real world technologies that are similar to this concept. Elon Musk created a company called NeuraLink, which has a small chip that can connect to the brain via little tiny threads. This invention was first made to help paralyzed people to move, but is quickly evolving into allowing humans to connect to their electronic devices using just their thoughts. It’s fascinating how years after the Clone Wars was created, someone invented a technology that is so similar to something that we saw in its fiction. It makes you wonder what other technologies we can take from our imaginations and make into reality.
Star Wars is a beloved show featuring a variety of futuristic technologies and concepts. In the modern day, we are experiencing a period of innovation that uniquely mirrors some of these imaginary ideas. Many of the technologies we see in shows would be able to benefit people in the real world if they existed. Some incredibly intelligent scientists and innovators have been working to improve the lives of regular people for years, and we are getting closer and closer to making comfortable living a reality for everybody.
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