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Goodbye, Dolly
goombah99 writes "Dolly, the famous cloned sheep has been put to death after being diagnosed with a progressive lung disease, according to many reports. This follows on earlier reports that she was prematurely aging, including developing arthritis. While one should be cautious about drawing conclusions from a single data point, its interesting to speculate." Here is a link to her birthplace courtesy of Captain Large Face
Hello Lamb Chops !!!
This is the best thing about cloning. An endless supply of lamb chops !!!
-- You see, there would be these conclusions that you could jump to
There is nothing sadder for a parent than having to burry their clone....
Somehow that just did not sound right.
"We had to put her to sleep," they said sheepishly. "She was in shear agony. There was mutton we could do about it."
If your bitterest enemies are people who hack the heads off civilians, then I would say you're doing something right.
Although the shortening of her telomeres is well-publicized, it very well may have had nothing to do with the death. A somewhat more detailed story can be found here [Reuters].
They don't know how many sheep they've actually cloned, you know. They tried counting the sheep, but they fell asleep...
Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
Yes, but if the rumors of premature aging are true, they may actually have some science to base their argument on. You see there's this very important substance called telomeres attached to the end of chromosomes. As cells divide, the telomere caps become shorter, and eventually the cells stop dividing and either malfunction or die. It stands to reason that, if you start off with an adult cell, you already have shortened telomeres and will therefore have a reduced lifespan. [Any biology experts should feel free to correct me.]
Rather than terminate Dolly, I'd rather they have experimented with telomerase to see if they could rejuvinate her. Although, I guess that's a little on the unethical and cruel side.
GreyPoopon
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Why is it I can write insightful comments but can't come up with a clever signature?
If mature animals have "old" DNA, how do their offspring get "young" DNA?
I think of DNA aging as a process of random decay over time, but somehow my old DNA and my wife's old DNA can produce a baby with young DNA.
Does the combination of DNA during sexual reproduction clean up the strands from the parents? Or is something going on in their gonads to clean up their old DNA before packing it into gametes?
There's a biological process here that I haven't heard anyone describe, or even identify. And yes, I want to patent it.
Ahh, Scotland - where the men are men, and the sheep are nervous.
"If he thinks he can hide and run from the United States and our allies, he's sorely mistaken." Bush on bin Laden