1996
Dolly, the most famous sheep in the world!
"It has not esacped our notice that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggest a possiable copying mechanism for the genetic material." Waston and Crick said this unknowing predicting the task of cloning. A cell divides into two more cells, referred to as 'daughter cells', and both of these cells grow regularly, copy their hereditary material and again split, making two more daughter cells and repeating the process. The daughter cells are clones of each other, because both nuclei (plural of nucleus) have the same genes in them. This natural process goes on and on with each cycle. After a normal length of time for a Fin Dorset, 148 days, Dolly was born.
Coloning Dolly was not an easy task. First the scientist had to figure out a way to do the actual cloning. They first looked at the cell cycle.
While most scientist figured that the actual cloning process should begin in an already dividing cell/nucleus, Dr. Keith Campbell deiced a different route. He thought that the clonining process could start in an non-dividing nucleus, that hasn't yet begun to divide. So taking a sample from an adult sheep (the donor) he tried it. And failed. But he kept on trying it up to 276 times! This was definitely no easy task.
Dolly is a normal, healthy looking Fin Dorset and is a true clone, because Dolly's Blackfaced mother couldn't have given birth to a white faced sheep no matter who the father was. But the scientists double checked anyway, and 'fingerprinted' dolly and her mom and were able to prove that Dolly's DNA matched that of the cells from the tissue culture, and not the cells of her birth mother. Although some newspapers have said so, Dolly has not eaten her owner or any fellow sheep. She doesn't shoot laser beams from her eyes or talk.