All About Cloning

Authors Note: This is a research/district assessment essay on the science topic of cloning. It will describe the history, process, and many other intriguing facts about cloning.

What is cloning? Cloning is a complex task that requires a person to make an exact replica of an animal. The copy would have the exact DNA as the animal that was cloned (What is Cloning?). One example of cloning is identical twins. The twins weren’t cloned by a scientist, but they were cloned in naturally. Cloning is well researched topic by scientists and is one of the most controversial and interesting topics that are in science today (What is Cloning?).

First, let’s talk about the history of cloning. The first person to successfully clone an animal was in the late 1800’s named Hans Dreisch. The most known cloned animal is called the Dolly sheep, but Hans Dreisch successfully cloned a sea urchin. Hans Dreisch put two attached embryo cells into a beaker and shook them until the separated. The two separated embryo cells grew into normal sea urchins with no signs of being cloned (Thinkquest.org).

 

Now, you are probably wondering what the process of cloning is. First, you must get a donor nucleus ready. Then you must get an unfertilized egg. Next, you carefully remove the nucleus of the unfertilized egg. Then you insert the donor nucleus to the egg. Last you put the egg into a womb of a female animal. There is more of a chance that the egg will not produce anything, but there is a possibility that it will clone the animals (Carver).

Even though, animals are the ones being cloned, many scientists believe that in the next few years we will be able to clone humans. Humans can be cloned, but it would be harder than any other mammal. One reason is that two important proteins are very close to the chromosomes in eggs. So removal of the nucleus to put in the donor nucleus would remove the proteins of the cell, which would make cell division harder. Still, scientists believe that in the next couple of years cloning humans will be possible (Cloning).

           However, there is a risk to cloning. Right now, there are about 1 – 2 successfully cloned animals per 100 tries. So cloning humans could cause defects in the cloned human because they would be using that persons DNA. Also many people believe that everyone is different and special in their own way, so cloning wouldn’t make people as special. These are some reasons that cloning is a very controversial topic. As cloning humans would be a cool and amazing scientific breakthrough, but it would make people not as unique and special as they are right now (Cloning Fact Sheet)

Scientists are continuously making the cloning technology better and that could help make cloning more efficient and easier to do. Cloning is a very controversial topic that is very well researched among scientists. As it would be cool to clone a human, I do not think that the risk is of cloning a human is worth it. All in all, cloning is a very complex task that many scientists have the honor to participate and improve in.

Bibliography

Batra, Karen. "Process of Cloning." 2008. CloneSaftey.org virtual pressroom. 17 April 2012 <http://www.clonesafety.org/cloning/facts/process/>.

Carver, Roy J. "Cloning: How To Make Identical Genomes ." 2004. Iowa Public Television. 17 April 2012 <http://www.iptv.org/exploremore/ge/what/clone.cfm>.

"Cloning." 1 July 2011. National Human Genome Research Institute . 17 April 2012 <http://www.genome.gov/25020028>.

"Cloning Fact Sheet." 11 May 2009. Human Genome Project Information. 19 April 2012 <http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/cloning.shtml#humans>.

Thinkquest.org. 25 April 2012 <http://library.thinkquest.org/20830/Frameless/Manipulating/Experimentation/Cloning/longdoc.htm>.

"What is Cloning?" Genetic Science Learning Center. 17 April 2012 <http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/tech/cloning/whatiscloning/>.