Its festival time in Edinburgh, which means the city is teeming with Australians, and every restaurant, café and theatre space in the city is packed out!
Edinburgh not only plays host to one of the most popular arts festivals in the world, but, in 1997 was the city where one of the most controversial scientific events of recent times occurred- the birth of the cloned mammal, Dolly the Sheep.
Dolly was born on 5 July 1996 at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh UK. Her birth was announced to the media 7 months later in February 1997. She was the first mammal to be cloned using somatic cell nuclear transfer using mammary glands from a six year old sheep donor. Dolly in actual fact had three mothers, one who provided the fertilized egg, one who provided the mammary cell and lastly the surrogate who carried her to term.
(Source: Wikipedia)
Dolly gave birth to two litters of lambs (five lambs in total across two years) in her lifetime. At the age of five she developed arthritis in her legs. In 2003 at the age of six, Dolly was euthanased due to developing lung disease and severe arthritis. Dolly had lived most of her life indoors, due to security reasons.(Source: Wikipedia)
What made Dolly’s birth so controversial was that, for the first time, scientists understood that it could be possible to clone other mammals, including humans, using the same technique. A number of scientists, religious organisations and politicians made statements about human cloning. The world was becoming conscious of the ethics of human cloning. Take a look at this video, for a bit more information.
In Hello Dolly Part Two, I’ll be exploring the controversies internal and external to the scientific community in relation to Dolly the Sheep.
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