Ian Wilmut, the cloning pioneer whose work was critical to the creation of Dolly the Sheep in 1996, has died, the University of Edinburgh in Scotland said on September 11. He was 79.
Important Days
The process involved putting DNA from the adult cell into an empty sheep's egg. Researchers then stimulated it with electricity and added chemicals - which had the effect of rejuvenating the adult DNA into an embryo. That was then implanted into a surrogate sheep until it came to term. There are times when developments in science represent much more than a step forward in knowledge. Occasionally, they change everything. Seeing the Earth from space and the detonation of atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki created big cultural shifts in our view of ourselves and the world around us. At the time, the birth of Dolly the cloned sheep felt like just such a moment.
____________________________
