Saturday, November 8, 2008

Cute . . . or CLONE?





The sweet little mouse shown above is no ordinary rodent. He's a clone. A clone created from cells of another mouse that had been frozen for SIXTEEN YEARS. (See the original below.)

Though there are many people who have issues with the project, the Japanese researchers responsible hope that one day they can use the technique to clone a woolly mammoth or saber tooth tiger.

(Or perhaps Walt Disney? Urban Legend has it that the great man had his body cyrogenically frozen in case doctors one day discovered the cure for the cancer that killed him. Some accounts claim only Disney's head was preserved. Find out more here.)

Who knows where this new scientific advance could lead us. Will people start freezing parts of their bodies in the hope that they'll one day be cloned? Will real-life Jurassic Parks, featuring the prehistoric beasts of the Ice Age, open to the public? Will Walt Disney's return in clone form to take charge of them? I think my head is going to explode!

Read about the latest advances in cloning here.


17 comments:

Orchid said...

Ooh, a clone Walt Disney creepy!! So wrong, yet very very interesting.

Anonymous said...

I think that with discoveries like these for human kind, there comes a great responsibility.
If we're given this knowledge, it shouldn't be exploited.
Also, there will always be the issue of ethical standards.

But I agree, it would be freaky to see a T-rex(maybe a mini version would be better then) or a wooly mammoth, or sabre-tooth in a zoo.

Ren (All By MySHELF) said...

I'm not really sure how I feel about cloning. What really is the point of cloning things, anyway? I just find it weird.

KieL said...

woah, cloaning is kinda creepy! I guess it'd help scientists further their research in extinct species and the theory of how dinasaurs died...

walt disney is one of a kind, even a clone wouldn't replace him! =D

mei said...

I think it's a cute mouse. But I don't think I would want to see a woolly mammoth nor a saber tooth tiger. Cloned or not.

Nellie said...

Cloning is so...wrong. It's like playing God. But, uh, you gotta admit, that mouse is CUTE!

Poison Pen said...

Wow, Walt Disney? I didn't know *that* about him. Interesting....
I agree with Kiel, though. Walt was unique. No one could ever replace him. And having watched Jurrasic park fourteen times over the weekend, I find the thought of a real life Park terrifyingly attractive. Very interesting, Kirsten.
P.S. Has anyone heard of Dolly, the cloned sheep?

Girlskickbutt!!! said...

just a little on the freaky side.

undiscovered universe said...

I think cloning is wrong. I'm sorry to those who think otherwise, but there is only one of everybody. What happened to everyone's different? And it's not for religios reasons (I don't think I believe in God)I just think it's wrong.

Undiscovered Universe said...

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Anonymous said...

Anonymous1: Deep!

I have mixed feelings about cloning...

Nina said...

We are learning about how to clone things in honors biology and It would be that hard to do if everything went smoothy I bet they could clone disney and him invent things equally amazing but as of now cloning any type of human is illegal because since the DNA of the human they took it from is already as old as the person they took it from the person would die sooner so they would allow it now do the dismay of my whole class

dangerous said...

That would be so cool! Walt would be very pleased to see that his enterprise is slowly taking over the minds of the young. Cloning.... weird, but I can see how there would be lots of religous/moral disputes on how this technology should be used.

Hazel said...

I think cloning isn't very respectful to human life. It IS cute, but no cuter than a normal mouse.

Hazel said...

Oh, and Nina, do you mean you're learning how it works, or you're actually doing it? That would be one heck of a biology course.

sweet_voldemort said...

prehistoric animals cloning are fine,but thinking of Walt Disney head being cloned and started to moved(like a bodyless man),it's kinda creepy.no matter what you're cloning,please don't clone humans

forrester said...

whoa. um i agree w/ Nellie.