MetaFilter posts tagged with cloning

Learn.Genetics

netbros — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:35:03 -0800

grumblebee's post about cell size and scale the other day was quite fascinating. Pulling back to the home for that site, the Genetic Science Learning Center at the University of Utah delivers educational materials on genetics, bio-science and health topics ranging from stem cells to gene therapy, and from epigenetics to heredity. Explore the neurobiology of normal and addicted brains and the genetic contribution to this chronic disease.

Go topless... and let me tell you about some UFOs

ocherdraco — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:21:19 -0800

The second annual National Go Topless Protest Day will be held this Sunday, August 23, in various American cities. It happens to be run by Raelians, members of a UFO religion founded by Rael, a former French sports-car journalist and test driver born Claude Vorilhon. (Coverage of last year's protest in New York City, which is, as one might suspect, NSFW.) Though the current "Go Topless!" site talks more about women's rights than Raelism, in 2004, Raelian women were marching topless not for the legalization of bare breastedness, but against "the repressive Myth of God." Don't remember the Raelians? This is just the most recent stunt by the publicity-hungry group that capitalizes on media-friendly controversy: in 2002, during the slow news week between Christmas and New Year's Day, they announced the creation of the first human clone, gaining what Rael estimated at over $500 million of free media coverage. In an interview, Rael unabashedly discusses his passion for publicity. From a press release:

The organization has decided to hold its protest events annually on the Sunday before Women's Equality Day, which is celebrated Aug. 26. On that date in 1920, after a 72-year struggle, women earned the right to vote. In 1970, Congress declared Aug. 26 Women's Equality Day "to remind people of women's continuing efforts for equality." GoTopless.org includes not only Raelians, who believe all life on Earth was created by advanced extraterrestrial scientists called the Elohim, but women and men representing many other beliefs. GoTopless's primary goals: nationwide legal recognition of women's right to go bare-chested and its acceptance by the public. "Breasts are noble parts of the anatomy," said Raelian Priestess Nadine Gary, president of GoTopless.org. "They shouldn't have to be hidden any more than arms or legs. 'Free your breasts, free your mind!' is our message to women. Men can practice respecting a freedom they take for granted and help end the puritanical idea that children shouldn't see breasts unless a woman is nursing." "Concern for children can be used as an excuse to violate human rights," said psychologist Daniel Chabot, a Raelian bishop. "But a child who sees breasts experiences no adverse effects. European children have been proving that for 40 years." Protest events will include marches, art displays; musical performances and speeches about top-less freedom. "The art works won't be censured for including nipples," Gary said. "In fact, we're encouraging the artists to celebrate the entire breast in all its magnificence and beauty!"

Cloning passport card RFIDs

homunculus — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 14:32:46 -0800

Passport RFIDs cloned wholesale by $250 eBay auction spree. "Using inexpensive off-the-shelf components, an information security expert has built a mobile platform that can clone large numbers of the unique electronic identifiers used in US passport cards and next generation drivers licenses. The $250 proof-of-concept device - which researcher Chris Paget built in his spare time - operates out of his vehicle and contains everything needed to sniff and then clone RFID, or radio frequency identification, tags. During a recent 20-minute drive in downtown San Francisco, it successfully copied the RFID tags of two passport cards without the knowledge of their owners." [Via]

The Disturbatainment That Is Ryan Trecartin...

Lipstick Thespian — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 06:57:57 -0800

Ryan Trecartin is what happens when John Waters meets David Lynch meets Atom Egoyan meets Harmony Korine.... Try I-Be Area first. More here. A quick review of I-Be Area. Trecartin in the Times. Enjoy. Ryan Trecartin is a RISD kid with a serious fetish for day-glo makeup and jumpcuts.

Clones produced from mice frozen for 16 years

homunculus — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 13:42:14 -0800

Production of healthy cloned mice from bodies frozen at −20°C for 16 years. Mammoths next?

Clones and Kidnapped Mormons

MythMaker — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 12:13:36 -0800

When the publicity hit that a South Korean cloning lab duplicated 5 copies of Californian Bernann McKinney's late pitbull Booger from a piece of the dog's ear tissue, people all over the UK said Bernann McKinney looks very similar [slightly NSFW] to the infamous fugitive Joyce McKinney who has been on the lam for 30 years for kidnapping and raping a Mormon.

Re-Pet, LLC

psmealey — Thu, 22 May 2008 08:18:06 -0800

BestFriendsAgain.com The Best Friends Again program, sponsored by BioArts International, is a limited commercial dog cloning program. BioArts is the only entity in the world with both the know-how and the legal right to practice commercial dog and cat cloning. We are auctioning off 5 dog cloning service slots to the general public. We may or may not perform any additional commercial dog cloning services after this auction.

Embryo-free Embryonic Stem-Cells

homunculus — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 11:56:32 -0800

Simple switch turns cells embryonic. "Researchers have finally hit the jackpot: Embryo-free embryonic stem-cells!"

FDA approves cloned meat

knave — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 19:48:12 -0800

FDA approves meat and milk from cloned animals, no labels necessary.

Silent Resurrection!

squalor — Fri, 04 Nov 2005 15:51:17 -0800

Hair, toenails, bone, or what-have-you - this job's going to require some Quality Genetic Material! Because "...our aim is the 'resurrection' of actresses from the Golden era of silent cinema."

Tasmanian Tiger Extinct or Not

peacay — Sun, 27 Mar 2005 03:40:59 -0800

The Tasmanian Tiger or thylacine [Thylacinus cynocephalus], a marsupial, was thought to have become extinct when the last known animal died in captivity from exposure in 1936. There have been numerous alleged sightings since. A German tourist supposedly photographed one recently (free reg.). Now there's a reward out for producing a live specimen but with prohibitive conditions requiring a permit that won't be issued. The thylacine cloning project has just been abandoned because the pup (from 1866) was kept in alcohol and not formalin - degrading the DNA.

New and...improved?

FormlessOne — Sun, 13 Feb 2005 07:44:44 -0800

U.S. Denies Patent for a Too-Human Hybrid - what happens when your DNA violates a patent? Not sure where to begin on this one.

Blinded By Science

stbalbach — Thu, 11 Nov 2004 06:47:11 -0800

Blinded By Science: How `Balanced' Coverage Lets the Scientific Fringe Hijack Reality. How and why the media has failed so completely to educate the American public on the massive environmental dangers we face. (via WorldChanging)

The wisdom or capriciousness of disgust

Tlogmer — Sat, 04 Sep 2004 15:44:57 -0800

Conservatives have been talking about the Wisdom of Disgust for a long time -- most recently with regard to human cloning, but usually, of course, homosexuality. Nussbaum counters at Reason Online. (And Kimball rips her a new one at the New Criterion.)

Attack of the Cloned Kittens

falconred — Thu, 15 Apr 2004 11:34:33 -0800

Genetic Savings and Clone is the first company to offer domestic animal cloning to the consumer. For just $50,000 you can have an exact replica of Fifi or Snowball. The company's founder claims this is a boon for loving pet owners. Others aren't so sure.

CATGee.com

crunchland — Mon, 01 Sep 2003 15:48:11 -0800

the world's first personal DNA storage & sampling kit ~ Save, share, and celebrate your DNA. ”Your very being, saved on a swab, for all eternity”

Cloning without the Controversy

jsonic — Tue, 29 Apr 2003 07:47:33 -0800

'Virgin birth' method promises ethical stem cells. The technique, parthenogenesis, manipulates unfertilized eggs to produce short-lived embryos from which stem cells can be obtained. As the article states: "it produces embryos that could never become human beings. So destroying these embryos to obtain stem cells would avoid the ethical concerns that have led to restrictions or bans on embryonic stem cell research in many countries."

Call the Clone Doctor

?! — Thu, 10 Apr 2003 20:36:25 -0800

Call the Clone Doctor! In the June issue of Reproductive BioMedicine Online Panayiotis Zavos announced a group has produced "the first human cloned embryo for reproductive purposes". He is leaving his position as professor of animal sciences in the agriculture department of the University of Kentucky (USA) to join the organization responsible for the embryo. He's no johnny-come-lately -- he stated his plans last year.

Dolly's gone

111 — Fri, 14 Feb 2003 11:41:02 -0800

Dolly is dead. "The type of lung disease Dolly developed is most common in older sheep. And in January 2002, it was revealed that Dolly had developed arthritis prematurely. She was cloned using a cell taken from a healthy six-year-old sheep, and was born on 5 July 1996 at the Roslin Institute, Edinburgh, Scotland."

Clone wars casualty

psmealey — Fri, 14 Feb 2003 10:10:51 -0800

That business plan for 'Re-Pet' may have to wait a bit longer yet.

mammoth clone

stbalbach — Sat, 08 Feb 2003 14:41:08 -0800

Cells obtained from the well-preserved legs of a mammoth found last summer in Russia's far-northern Yakutia region are "conditionally alive" and could provide the DNA needed to resurrect the long-extinct tuskers.

Cloned Cat

elpapacito — Tue, 21 Jan 2003 17:12:10 -0800

Cloned Cat Doesn't look and behave like the original cat.Public perception of cloning is clone=original, but we have the proof it isn't always true. Isn't that the proof complex systems doesn't always work like we want, so it'd better to slow down the marketing of genetic engineered food ?

We Shall Steal Your Child

effugas — Sat, 11 Jan 2003 21:12:25 -0800

Does the state have the right to kidnap your child, if it doesn't approve of the manner in which you became pregnant? Maybe Clonaid ran a huge hoax, maybe they actually produced a clone -- but their refusal to provide the proof is proving more and more legitimate. Florida Attorney Bernard Siegel is pressing the case that if the child is indeed really a clone, then the state is much more qualified to raise it. Now, reasonable people can disagree on the creepiness of cloning, but isn't the image of jack-booted thugs tearing a child from the arms of her loving mother into the hands of government doctors a whole different level of horror?

Brigitte Boisselier, Raelians, appearance and credibility

Carlos Quevedo — Sat, 28 Dec 2002 21:25:24 -0800

The Clone Crone: Is Brigitte Boisselier the scariest woman of 2002? Will she replace the Bride of Wildenstein in our epidermic disaffections? The Sunday British tabloids seem to think so. How much does protagonists' physical appearance influence our perception of public events, such as the alleged cloning of a human being? [ See MeFi's recent thread.] Are rampant male chauvinism and female cattiness making a comeback? In other words, would people take the other, more famous Brigitte more seriously if she were still beautiful? Or a man?

moo moo moo moo moo moo moo moo moo moo moo moo moo moo moo moo

troutfishing — Sat, 28 Dec 2002 10:32:01 -0800

Betting on Mini-Cows "ROCKWELL, Iowa -- Dustin Pillard is betting his farm on compact cows...Pillard has 50 tiny cows on his northern Iowa farm" MEANWHILE..."In a May dispatch from Cuba, the Wall Street Journal reported that Fidel Castro proposed in 1987 to alleviate a chronic milk shortage by trying to get his scientists to clone the most productive cows, shrunk to the size of dogs so that each family could keep one inside it's apartment. The cows would feed on grass grown inside under fluorescent lights." Now I'd like a mini-polar bear, please, and a mini-elephant, while you're at it...