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Scientists To Open Mass-Cloning Factory in China This Year To Clone Cows, Pets, Humans (express.co.uk)
An anonymous reader writes: Scientists in China are planning to open a mass-cloning factory by the end of the year. The ambitious and futuristic facility hopes to be mass-producing one million cows every 12 months by 2020. Not only will it clone cattle, but the factory, which will be located in the northern Chinese port of Tianjin, will also cater to more specific needs by genetically engineering police dogs and thoroughbred race horses. It is part of a $21m plan which is backed by the Boyalife group in collaboration with South Korean company Sooam Biotech Research Foundation.
April fools was 4 days ago guys...
It's just you. The world is not completely natural any more and we have been practicing artificial selection for ages.
Linux is for people who don't mind RTFM.
> factory to clone...humans
Because if there's one thing the Chinese are bad at, it's producing more humans.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
"Not only will it clone cattle, but the factory, which will be located in the northern Chinese port of Tianjin, will also cater to more specific needs by genetically engineering police dogs and thoroughbred race horses."
It gets a brief mention in the title and then the body focuses on cows, dogs, and horses rather than the part about cloning humans???
Actually checking TFA, it says:
"There are currently no plans in the pipeline to clone and produce humans in a bid to eradicate disease, but Xiaochun has said that this can change if people become more open to the idea of it."
So it sounds like the cloning humans is just a "hey, we could do this at some point" thing, and not part of the initial plan of operation?
In any case, i'm not sure why this is a good solution to a demand for more meat. In the long run (and possibly even the short run) doing a little more research and building a cultured meat factory would probably be a lot more cost effective than cloning the entire cow.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
There are currently no plans in the pipeline to clone and produce humans in a bid to eradicate disease, but Xiaochun has said that this can change if people become more open to the idea of it.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
How can we tell they're clones?
You ask about their mother. If they promise to tell you about their mother and pull out a shotgun, it's a clone.
Is a specific cow, or pet that special? And if so, why on *earth* would you think a cloned one would act the same?
And people... there are these people called "twins", or "triplets", etc, and they all turn out differently. What would you expect to get by cloning someone?
And it's a long term thing, if you're cloning your favorite movie star, or politician...
mark
Selective breeding is analogous to using mother nature's tools, within mother nature's workshop, to guide the otherwise natural course of evolution. That's precisely why human beings have been able to do it for ages: because it relies on nothing more than mother nature.
Genetic engineering is something entirely different. Clearly, genetic engineering does NOT use mother nature's tools, but rather a toolkit which isn't found anywhere in nature. And clearly, genetic engineering does NOT work within the rules of mother nature's workshop, but rather outside of them completely. This is precisely why human beings have not been able to do this until very recently in the course of our technical evolution: because it requires much more than mother nature's toolkit and workshop.
The two procedures aren't even remotely comparable, even if they do attempt to achieve a similar goal. Note that I haven't actually spoken out against genetic engineering here. I've only laid out a common-sense argument why genetic engineering isn't comparable to selective breeding.
There were no potatoes in Ireland prior to 1589, yet there were plenty of Irish.
Nope. Ireland was sparsely populated prior to the introduction of potatoes. Staple crops like wheat grow poorly in their cold wet climate. Potatoes had a huge effect on European history, enabling northern lands to increase in population, devote fewer workers to growing food, and invest more in commerce and military force. Power shifted from the Mediterranean to Germany, Britain, Sweden and Russia. The Reformation likely would have failed without this power shift. Nothing did more to destroy the Spanish Empire than that sack of potatoes that they brought back from Peru.
The pet's personality is based on how it is treated when it is raised. simply repeat the same treatment and you will get pretty close to the same thing. I had a full breed collie for 14 years, she died of old age and we got a fresh puppy to replace her. now at a year old there are a LOT of identical behaviors in the new puppy as I am raising it the same way I raised the other. You train in the desired traits, and train out the undesired ones. It's all just dog training, you just need to be consistent.
Now natural breeding adds in randomness. I am sure there is genetic memory that is passed down, as well as training the pup gets from it's mother for the first 10 weeks that you can not influence.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.