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China Says it Cloned a Police Dog To Speed Up Training (xinhuanet.com)
A cloned dog, believed to be the first of the kind in China, has started training in Yunnan Province in a program to reduce the cost and time needed for training police dogs. From a report: Kunxun, a female of the Kunming wolfdog breed, was born on Dec. 19 last year in Beijing and arrived on March 5 for training at the Kunming Police Dog Base of the Ministry of Public Security. She was cloned from a 7-year-old female dog, known as Huahuangma, that has been in service in the city of Pu'er, Yunnan, by Sinogene, a Beijing-based biotechnology firm. The cloning is part of the ministry's research program.
Huahuangma played important roles in helping detectives with dozens of murder investigations, and was accredited the first-level merit in 2016, said Wan Jiusheng, an officer who is responsible for training Kunxun. Huahuangma's outstanding abilities as a police dog made her an eligible donor of genes, Wan said. "It takes four to five years to train a meritorious dog such as Huahuangma, and costs hundreds of thousands of yuan," he said. Police dogs serving in real tasks are not usually used for breeding. The cloning program helps researchers copy their excellent genes and reduces the time and costs needed for training, researchers familiar with the program said.
Huahuangma played important roles in helping detectives with dozens of murder investigations, and was accredited the first-level merit in 2016, said Wan Jiusheng, an officer who is responsible for training Kunxun. Huahuangma's outstanding abilities as a police dog made her an eligible donor of genes, Wan said. "It takes four to five years to train a meritorious dog such as Huahuangma, and costs hundreds of thousands of yuan," he said. Police dogs serving in real tasks are not usually used for breeding. The cloning program helps researchers copy their excellent genes and reduces the time and costs needed for training, researchers familiar with the program said.
Nature vs Nurture argument is back here. If we clone a good police dog, but assume it will be cheaper to train, then they don't train it as well as it genetic predecessor, thus isn't as effective, and the high cost of cloning a dog.
We have identical twins, who have different personalities, and over time actually have some physical differences in appearance, (A little fatter or skinnier), Gone gray earlier, one needs glasses while the other doesn't, even their face structure can be different over time, just because they express emotions differently.
I don't see much advantage over cloning a good dog vs breeding a good dog with an other good one.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Cloning would only affect the physical attributes and mental 'capacities' of the dog. It would NOT pass on the acquired skills or training so the dog isn't going to know how to sniff out a perp without that same 5 years of training including for physical abilities. I don't see how this "speeds up the process" although it's more likely that you're going to guarantee a successful candidate from the cloning.
That is how it works in Science Fiction.
Also in Science fiction they like to produce fully grown clones too. Not kids growing up in their sterile scientific environment.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Mostly if not absolutely, no, but some epigenetic changes can be passed to the next generation, such as stress. But complex skills can't be inherited. They copied the DNA because that particular combination of genes was successful and it's very difficult and costly to reproduce a similarly gifted dog with just selective breeding.
If you're talking about "I'm no good at math" mental ability, then sure - you're no good at math because you haven't practiced enough. Some people are predisposed to thinking in the ways necessary, but it's something anyone do if they put their mind to it.
But if you're trying to scale that up to "anybody could be an Einstein" - I find that extremely unlikely. The further outside the normal range you get, the bigger the impact of genetic predisposition. The brain is not infinitely plastic - and like muscle, there's a limit to how far you can push it. If you come from a long line of scrawny weaklings, it's pretty much guaranteed that you'll never be able to become an Olympic-class weightlifter. You just don't have the hardware for it. Similarly, if you're born with an intelligence well below average (not damaged, just at the extreme low end of normal), no amount of practice is going to make you one of the most brilliant minds of the species.
>Look at poor rednecks: they're often genius automechanics, but we see them as stupid people.
That's because stupid, as commonly used, has two different meanings - lacking in intelligence, and lacking in knowledge. Rednecks as a class fall into the second group. There's also the fact that, in your example, auto repair is an extremely limited problem domain, so most anyone who really dedicates themselves to it can master it and be a brilliant mechanic. Compare that to music, math, science, etc. where the scope is immense, and genius is only recognized in your ability to stand head-and-shoulders above the multitudes of experts. Had Einstein dedicated himself to auto repair instead of physics he would no doubt have been brilliant at it - but he wouldn't have been able to accomplish anything substantially more than any other run of the mill "genius" mechanic - the auto-repair domain is too small to allow for true brilliance to express itself.
>We don't think of politicians, bureaucrats, chefs, or performance artists as geniuses;
Speak for yourself. I'll admit I can't think of any bureaucrats called geniuses - but I suspect that's because the domain is again too small, and the achievements of a brilliant bureaucrat mostly look just like the achievements of a larger number of mediocre ones. Genius is usually recognized in great achievements, not just numerous ones. The rest though - brilliance is celebrated in all of them.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.