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Dolly the Sheep Alive Again
SpeZek writes "Dolly the sheep has been reborn. Four clones have been made by the scientist behind the original research.
The quads, which have been nicknamed 'the Dollies,' are exact genetic copies of their predecessor, who was put down seven years ago.
The latest experiments were partly carried out to check if improvements to the technique cut the risk of problems in and out of the womb.
Named after country and western singer Dolly Parton, Dolly was created from a cell taken from a mammary gland. The rest of the sample of tissue has lain in a freezer since, until it was defrosted to make the Dollies."
Pass the mint jelly :-)
Okay, is my mind totally in the gutter, or is there a significance to the mammary gland / Dolly Parton link?
Better known as 318230.
I'm curious to know if Dolly will be the new teacup (used to test rendering algorithms) or Lenna (for image processing).
Will we be cloning the same sheep over and over again as a common reference?
Well, it's not as if they created her out of some sort of vacuum. They're just manipulating the machines that nature has already provided.
GOOD NIGHT!
Stupid journalists and movie makers keep thinking cloning something makes a true copy. These are genetic progeny; Dolly's sisters, not Dolly.
Duncan Idaho...
Starbucks, Harbuckle of Breath.
This makes me wonder how many people are cloning their pets and bringing them back.
I'm not sure I could do that myself. I miss some of mine, but would it be appropriate to bring them back, or should I just get another?
Don't know. But I think about it.
There are so many that need homes right now ... I know that I miss my first Newfie and my St. Bernard, but I also know that when my current Newfie and mutt pass on, there will always be other large dogs that need a home ...
-- Barbie
Now we know the identity of the Lost Cylon.
They've been doing this for years in Medicine. Just ask Henrietta Lacks.
From the article, the original Dolly was put down after about 6 years due to all kinds of medical conditions (infections, arthritis, etc). However, these four sheep are 3.5 years old, and are apparently in perfect health. A major argument against the use of cloned animals in animal husbandry (either cloning particularly tasty animals or using clones to breed) is that cloned animals end up in constant agony due to their origin.
Since these cloned animals appear just as comfortable and pain free as your "run of the mill" farm animal, it seems as if cloned animals can be just as humane to farm as normal animals. In fact, since the meat yield from each animal is much higher (by definition of selective cloning as the pinnacle of selective breeding), I would argue that using more cloned animals would reduce the ecological impact of the meat industry.
Ye average American Joe might not want to eat cloned meat, but clones are already breeding like mad to produce more productive offspring. Perhaps this new longitudinal study will give more insights on the ethics and health impacts of cloned meat.
Signatures are the new names.
What is the difference between getting a new pet and getting a new pet that shares your old pet's DNA?
(Aside from the high risk of the clone having genetic defects and dying young.)
So how long until the first genetic piracy article on Slashdot?
I would think after 3 or 4 incarnations you'd not feel so guilty about putting a bullet in one after it shits on the carpet
Dolly Idaho.
Abduhl Al-Hazred, in his Necronomicon wrote:
"That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange aeons even death may die."
There's a gene literally one gene in particular that determines how well your body copes with extreme long running sessions.
Those with one expression of it keep on jogging while the ones with a slightly different collapse. The ones with the first gene are also better suited to prolonged exertions of force.
The geneticists who actually breathe drink and live the human genome every day know of many genes that combined properly will give you the ultimate soldier.
It doesn't stop there, you can have faster thinking scientists, people needing less sleep the posibilities are endless. It boggles the mind why we as a society are crippling our scientific pursuits, and for what? For nothing!
Now that is a Texas-size sexual fantasy!
Futurist Traditionalism
The GOP is hoping to clone Ronald Reagan before the 2012 election, being that they are short real candidates.
Table-ized A.I.
There is no bond. Its a new individual. Its all in your head. The animal won't know or care.
One thing you can be assured of is that it will have a different personality (anamality?). You will probably be disillusioned.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
Too much of the development is dependent upon protein activation times and whole bunch of other stuff I know nothing about, for the cloned animal to be exactly like the original. For example, in the case of cats, the color is not directly determined by the DNA. The cat CC was the first cloned pet, and it did not look like its genetic donor. I imagine behavior is even more finicky, as it is affected by experiences and other such nebulous factors.
Better known as 318230.
Exactly. When my dear kitty passes on I'm sure she'll want me to give another shelter cat the same chance at a happy life that she had.
Plus, why would I disturb her from her eternal nap? Surely that's any cat's idea of heaven.
We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
They said only god could create life, well, then Dolly is irrefutable prove that there is no god.
Or that they were wrong about only God being able to create life.
Unless they used eggs from the same host animal as before, they are unlikely to be genetically identical since the mitochondrial DNA will be different.
The mitochondrial DNA problem is one reason why embryonic stem cells produced via cloning are still rejected by the animal in which it is implanted.
(I'm not the same AC)
I think it's presumptive to assert that clones will have a different personality. I imagine that's quite possible, especially for those who adopted pets which were already mature (thus their personality was fully formed beforehand). However, I've had several cats from birth (because we had taken in the mother), and other cats and dogs right from weaning. Those animals developed their personalities under our care, and I suspect there would be a better than even chance that their clones' personalities would at least be very similar to original. I base that on the idea that whatever part of cat (or dog) personality is determined by genetics should be identical (barring cloning errors), and that the environment in which they would develop would be quite similar.
That said, I'd probably rather just take in strays/rescues, particularly given the likely ridiculous costs of pet cloning.
- T
The result was a Dolly Llama
I wonder if they have a hive mind - could this be the first Beowool cluster?
I wonder if they have a hive mind - could this be the first Beowool cluster?
If the sheep have a hive mind, wouldn't it be a Bee-O-Wool cluster?
antipaucity
I'm reminded of an old vet friend telling us about the "$4.95 budgie cure". When some tearful kid would come in holding a stone cold bird, the vet would quietly nip out the back door to the k-mart next door and buy another bargin budgie, and give it to the overjoyed child saying "Polly's cured!" and present the knowing parents with a bill for $4.95. If the child ever noticed the feather coloration or size was a bit off, then the vet would simply say "Oh, that's just a side effect of the medication".
So now you're telling me that the cloned cat CC did not really look like its genetic donor because of "protein activation times"? The cloning process that was used didn't cost $4.95, by any chance, did it?
Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was slightly grey,
It didn't have a father, just some borrowed DNA.
It sort of had a mother, though the ovum was on loan,
It was not so much a lambkin, as a little lamby clone.
And soon it had a fellow clone, and soon it had some more,
They followed her to school one day, all cramming through the door.
It made the children laugh and sing, the teachers found it droll,
There were too many lamby clones, for Mary to control.
No other could control the sheep; their programs didn't vary,
So the scientists resolved it all by simply cloning Mary.
But now they feel quite sheepish, those scientists unwary,
One problem solved! But what to do, with Mary, Mary, Mary...
-- by Anonymous (it's not mine; the writer's name is forgotten.)
Genocide Man -- Life is funny. Death is funnier. Mass murder can be hilarious.
Thanks for the social lesson. On a related note, people quote Sarah Palin a lot because she is funnier than, well - almost anyone with a clue. Now, allow me to return the favor: Scientist use the term mammary gland instead of breast, because not all breasts have mammary glands, and the two words, while related, are not synonymous.
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun