Cloning

Cloning

Cloning is never something that you would ever think would happen in real life. It is almost as believable as “a cloak of invisibility.” Some people believed that cloning only happens when the aliens come down to Earth and clone themselves. Science has been trying to crack the cloning case for centuries, and believed that is was impossible to do. But truth is, scientists have proved everyone wrong by solving the “cloning mystery.”

First off, do you know what cloning is? Cloning is basically a cell, cell product, or organism that is genetically identical to the unit or individual from which it was derived. Natural cloning is known as “Artificial Embryo Twinning,” which is formally known as “having identical twins.” This process comes to be when a fertilized egg tries to divide into a two cell embryo. This process is also known as mitosis, which was discovered in 1870 by a man named Walther Flemming.

In 1865, a man named Gregor Mendel discovered the basic law of genes, which lead to the 1908 discovery of mutations in fruit flies by Thomas Morgan. In 1944, three scientists that go by the name of Avery, Mcleo, and McCarty discovered DNA. Thanks to those men, in 1953, a man named James Watson duplicated genetic information in DNA. Then by the late 1950’s, scientists first started using a cloning procedure on frogs and salamanders, which were all unsuccessful. But, he biggest breakthrough is cloning history was in July of 1996, where a team of Scottish scientists had the first cloning success ever. The scientists took two sheep, and from one took some skin cells, and from the other an unfertilized egg. Afterwards, the cell grew with the second sheep and was born a duplicate. Dolly the sheep was released in February of 1997 and was the first clone ever. There was also a calf named Millie who was the first clone ever in the United States, who was born on August of 2000. This process of is known as Somatic Cell Transfer, or Manmade Mitosis.

There are five steps to cloning. The first step is to take a piece of DNA that contains the gene to be cloned and place it into a DNA molecule known as a vector, which is used to produce a recombined DNA molecule. The second step is to let the vector transport the gene to the “host” cell. Then, in the host cell the vector should multiply and make many identical copies of itself and the gene. Fourthly, the “host” cell should divide, so that the copies of the recombined DNA and the gene are now ready to be cloned. And after many cell divisions, clones of the host cells are produced. So that each cell has at least one copy of the recombined DNA, and the genes are now officially cloned.

Many people still believe that humans are impossible to clone. Yet, a Dr. Jerry Hall from George Washington University has been experimenting with human cloning, and believes that is it still possible. I believe that one day, hopefully soon, there will be a breakthrough in human cloning. And even though many say there are high risks when it comes to things as such, I still believe that it will one day happen.

Bibliography:

Dictionary. "Cloning." Dictionary. Cloning. 2011.

OCACLE. "Cloning." 2009. thinkquest. 9 May 2011 .

Utah, University Of. "Learn Genetics`." 2011. What is Cloning? 9 May 2011 .