Real science and THE FLY

Rating: Null/10 (21 January 2002)

The greatest thing about Cronenberg's version of THE FLY is how insightful it was about its science. In 1985, when this script was being written, Cronenberg and Pogue almost certainly could not have known how close they were to the truth of things regarding DNA.
Scientists have known for quite a while that just as all computer programs can ultimately be broken down to 1's and 0's, the fundamental building blocks of human life are the same in all living things. Human beings and flies share over 95 percent of the same DNA code. So, the concept of combining these two things on a "molecular-genetic level" is not as far-fetched as it might seem. In fact, scientists actually have done it the other way around. They have replaced sections of fruit fly DNA with human DNA, and bred honest-to-goodness humanflys.
A much newer discovery is even more fascinating in light of THE FLY. Dolly, the sheep clone, recently developed arthritis. That's not interesting in and of itself: sheep commonly get that ailment. The strange thing is that Dolly got it at a much younger age than she should have. Scientists believe that it has something to do with the fact that she was cloned. It's as if the sheep lost something in the copying process.
Now, this does NOT make scientific sense. Cloning is like copying a CD: it's digital. The exact same DNA should create an organism that has exactly the same body (and chance of getting sick) as the original. But the real-life experiment with Dolly seem to bear out the idea that there is something creepy and mysterious about messing with things on a genetic level, even if--scientifically--it seems like everything should be kosher.
So, in the FLY, when Jeff Goldblum starts slowly metamorphosizing, with both positive and then very negative results, I believe it's scary because it rings true, and we actually believe that it would happen that way.
How cool is it when science-fiction actually predicts science, and not the other way around?