Back in the late 1990s, people were afraid that Dolly would somehow take over the world. Not Dolly Parton. Although, these days, she makes a fairly huge impact on the world with all her humanitarian work.
No. The Dolly in question was the good sheep in Scotland. The Dolly of cloning fame. She was the first mammal to be reproduced using cloning, this on today’s date, February 23, 1997.
Would it be the sheep of things to come?
Wouldn’t ewe know it?
Only time wool tell.
As it was, Dolly was cloned, much to the dismay and fears of many. But Dolly came and went, dying on Valentine’s Day, in 2003. She was euthanized, only six years old, after being diagnosed with an incurable lung tumor. It wasn’t related to her cloning.
She probably lived the rest of those days, all six years of them, much like any other sheep. Although, I’m sure she was tested, poked, and prodded.
I’m guessing she remembered it all because sheep have great memories. In some other lab, at a different time and place, a study revealed that sheep can recognize up to 50 other sheep faces. “Hey! Do I know ewe?” Not only do they recognize their pals, they remember them for two years. I’m not sure about the logistics of this study, but I’m betting there was some kind of a line-up involved.
More studies have shown that sheep are emotionally complex animals. I think all animals probably are, truth be told. But in this case, they found that sheep are capable of experiencing a wide range of emotions — fear, anger, boredom, sadness, and happiness. And. Believe this next one or not, these scientific studies have shown that sheep can be pessimists and optimists. The naysayers hang out with the horses, probably.
Cloning is quite the thing, really. It is a technique scientists use to make exact genetic copies of living things. This can be any number of things from genes, cells, tissues, or even an entire animal.
There are three different types of cloning, by the way. They are gene cloning, reproductive cloning, and therapeutic cloning.
Here is the skinny on those.
Gene cloning is used to create copies of DNA segments or genes.
Therapeutic cloning is used to create embryonic stem cells.
And then there was Dolly, through reproductive methods.
Reproductive cloning is used to create a copy of an actual organism.
What most people don’t hear about is that cloning is happening somewhat frequently all around the world. Take a look at some of the “first cloning” that have occurred:
• The first fish to be cloned was an Asian Carp in 1963 by Chinese embryologist Tong Dizhou.
• The first mouse to be cloned was a house mouse via an embryo cell in 1986 in the Soviet Union.
• The first sheep to be cloned was a sheep named Dolly in 1996 by the Roslin Institute.
• The first calf to be cloned was Gene in 1997 by the American Breeders Service facilities in Deforest, Wisconsin.
• The first cat to be cloned was a brown tabby and white domestic shorthair feline named CopyCat or CC in 2001 by scientists at Texas A&M University.
• The first horse to be cloned was a Haflinger named Prometea in 2003 by the Laboratory of Reproductive Technology in Cremona, Italy.
• The first dog to be cloned was an Afghan hound named Snuppy in 2005 by the Department of Theriogenology and Biotechnology at Seoul National University in South Korea.
• The first camel to be cloned was a female dromedary camel named Injaz in 2009 by the Camel Reproduction Center in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Some groups are concerned that cloning could get out of hand and be used for nefarious purposes. I would not put it past some of today’s world leaders.
But so far, there has never been a verified claim that an actual human has been reproduced through cloning. It has been speculated, though. As of 2018, around 70 countries have banned human cloning, obviously, for social, ethical, and religious reasons.
Yet, many scientists see this as an invaluable tool in the realms of medicine and more. In the future, cloning could be used to improve the populations of endangered animals. There has even been talk about bringing back recently extinct animals.
So. Today is Dolly’s birthdate.
Was it good or bad for humankind?
Ewe decide.
I wouldn’t want to pull the wool over your eyes.
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“You could clone Elvis Presley and, while the clone would look identical, it would not have the utterly unique life experiences that made The King who he was. After all that time, effort and expense, the clone might choose to be a gardener instead of a singer! There’s also the ethical dilemma of recreating all the genetic problems Elvis had due to his maternal grandparents being first cousins.”
― Stewart Stafford
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“Experiences and memories make us who we are, not just our genes.”
― Merlyn Gabriel Miller, Sex, Death, Drugs & Madness
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“To realize that all people are alike and all are different is the beginning of wisdom.”
― Jeffrey Fry
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You’re looking swell, Dolly. I can tell, Dolly.
