Dolly the clone is no longer alone. Resolving doubts about the
authenticity of cloning, an international research team has
produced three generations of cloned laboratory mice from adult
cells, the group announced Wednesday. At the same time, two
laboratories separately confirmed the unique genetic pedigree of
the cloned sheep Dolly, whose creation triggered a worldwide
furor. Together, the new findings assure cloning a prominent
role in the biology of the next century, experts said, but they
do little to quiet international misgivings about the
unprecedented control that the new technique promises over the
ways that mammals--including human beings--reproduce themselves.
In research that may hasten the advent of commercial cloning, a
group of Japanese, American and English researchers working at
the University of Hawaii successfully cloned 50 animals from
adult mouse cells, the scientists announced Wednesday. They used
a new and perhaps more efficient cloning technique. The team
also demonstrated not only tha