(Dolly, the first animal clone)
Definitions
- Cloning: The process of producing an organism with identical genetic makeup as of the parent organism.
- Embryo: Premature offspring; the stage when the egg is fertilized and the baby is developing (before birth).
- Morula: An embryo consisting of cells in a solid ball-like structure.
- Chromosomes: A long strand of DNA which contains the genes and the instructions on how to build the cells.
- 1996, the first animal was cloned -- it was a sheep named Dolly.
- Animals are cloned by replacing the nucleus of an egg cell with the nucleus from another individual.
- Human embryos have been cloned, but they have not passed the early stage of a morula; the first person to clone an embryo was Robert Lanza.
- Approximately 25% of cloned animals are failures or have something wrong with them.
- Scientists have found the genome for Homo Sapiens and almost for Neanderthals.
- Fossilized DNA is not accurate (damaged), but it can be cloned.
- One extinct animal has been cloned-- a bucardo, but it died after birth because its lungs were not correctly formed.
Discussion
- Just like Church said, if someone discovers a hidden talent too late, they could tell their clone to explore that so that they can live "a fuller live".
- In the future, since less talent will be 'lost', this might lead to greater scientific developments.
- Greater developments in cloning might by held back, since we are not yet sure for they will be accepted into society.
Questions
- Is it possible to clone humans through animal egg cells (with a human nucleus) as opposed to only a human egg cell?
- Can cloning animals with rare disorders make it easier to learn about the symptoms and how to treat them?
Sources
- Choi, Charles Q. "Cloning of a Human." Science Reference Center. N.p., June
2010. Web. 22 Sept. 2010. <http://puffin.harker.org:2092/ehost/
detail?vid=3&hid=109&sid=a88c9bb7-03a9-4673-8aa6-4d87d1e79da3%40sessionmgr104&bda
ta=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=sch&AN=50456416>. - Dolly the Sheep Clone. N.d. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Sept. 2010.
<http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/11_02/DollySheepR_468x336.jpg>
5 comments:
Very interesting blog post. Good, clear explanations and I can easily understand them. What led you to choose this article? What is made it catch your eye? I find cloning to be fascinating considering the endless things that can be explored. For example, by taking DNA from fossils, we may be able to recreate extinct animals such as Dinosaurs. Overall, good job.
Great blog post!
I am also interested in the topic of cloning.
On the topic of human cloning - I think that human cloning will not be looked into in the present because I don't think the society will be very welcoming of it like you said. The population is growing by so much each day, the people being born could have talents and bring knowledge to the world. People will wonder why there's a need to clone one person. What do you think?
But I think in the future, scientists may clone people with rare diseases. This way, a cure can be found for the disease more easily.
On the topic of animal cloning - I think the society would be more welcoming to animal cloning. For example cloning endangered animals could be beneficial. And I also find it interesting that fossilized DNA could be cloned. I never knew that.
But are you sure this is a current science topic? Maybe you could include some new findings on cloning or something like that.
Thanks!
It actually didn't take me very long to find this article--I was always somewhat interested in the topic of cloning, and when I read through the article, it was definitely something I wanted to write my topic about.
Cloning dinosaurs! That might make Jurassic Park real! But I do expect scientists to do that in the future.
I think overpopulation is an issue, but my prediction is that clones won't necessarily be treated as normal people adding to the human population, which in my opinion is quite unfair. They will probably be used as guinea pigs on scientific experiments relating to humans. Most likely people with rare diseases or incredibly special talents, which they would like to perform tests on. Sort of like how you would save several copies of something important in case you somehow 'ruin' or unfavorable change the essence the first one.
Also, it is a pretty current science topic. It was more heavily discussed in the early 2000's because of the cloning of Dolly, but this article is from this June, actually. :)
Wow, you did a really nice job! I've heard about cloning but this article really helped me learn alot more about it. But I hope that scientists can find better ways to clone animals so they don't have defects and stuff wrong with them. Also, as Catherine said, you might want to talk more about a specific recent discovery in cloning. Overall, great job! I really found out alot of things from reading this :D
Thanks!
I'm sure they will, but since their focus isn't really on cloning, scientists probably won't find a method anytime soon, from what I'm guessing.
And yeah, that's true. The article I chose wasn't really referring to a specific experiment or discovery, but more to cloning in general. But I found it pretty interesting either way, so I decided to write about it. :)
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