Happy Holidays, See You in 2011!

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Mice Two Dads: Scientists Create Mice With Two Genetic Fathers

By e3000 via Flickr

We've got lots of critters here on the TWM blog lately...

It was announced yesterday that reproductive scientists in Texas, led by Dr. Richard R. Behringer at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, have produced male and female mice from two fathers using stem cell technology. Quite a few news outlets have sensationalized the news by frightening readers or painting campy scenarios not too different from the Schwarzengger film "Junior."

Rather than highlighting these wild projections, Discover Magazine's straightforward explanation describes how this was done and that for human reproduction this is a long way from being achieved.

Where would this be useful? One benefit we could think of is to preserve highly endangered species. Another would be the creators of the '80s sitcom My Two Dads could also make out well by resurrecting the show with this updated twist.

Clone of a clone: Dolly Lives On

Professor Keith Campbell, one of the scientists who cloned Dolly the sheep, recently announced that four sheep cloned from Dolly's tissue are alive and well. If you recall, Dolly was the first clone. She lived to six years, about half the life span of most sheep. In 2003 she died and about four years later, these four Dollies were created. These new clones apparently do not have the health issues that Dolly had and advancements in technology made the process of making them much easier. 


Read more about it at DailyTech.