i'll clone you dinner
i love slate. the news with an intellectually humourous twist. i'm reading the article on the fda approving clones on the table (clone, it's what's for dinner), and some things are just awesome. i feel i should share:
Which came first, the steer or the steak?
Case in point: Elvis. He's a 19-month-old Angus calf. Elvis was cloned from a side of Prime Yield Grade 1 beef. No joke: The calf came from the beef. If you like that side of beef and want another just like it, we can grow it for you. A steer from a steak from a steer. Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has re-entered the building.
now, that's only part of the article, but that was definately the best part. and the most interesting. will it get to the point where, if you find a steak you really like, you can ask the waiter to clone you some more? i'm fairly sure we'll do it with other animals, too. now we don't have to worry about an animal being endangered to enjoy it for dinner. we just have to get to the point where we can easily clone from live animals. but really, you don't eat the clone. you eat the clone's offspring. apparently, normal mating from cloned animals cleans up any "programming errors" that occur during the cloning process. which is interesting in itself, almost a reset button on genes.
Which came first, the steer or the steak?
Case in point: Elvis. He's a 19-month-old Angus calf. Elvis was cloned from a side of Prime Yield Grade 1 beef. No joke: The calf came from the beef. If you like that side of beef and want another just like it, we can grow it for you. A steer from a steak from a steer. Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has re-entered the building.
now, that's only part of the article, but that was definately the best part. and the most interesting. will it get to the point where, if you find a steak you really like, you can ask the waiter to clone you some more? i'm fairly sure we'll do it with other animals, too. now we don't have to worry about an animal being endangered to enjoy it for dinner. we just have to get to the point where we can easily clone from live animals. but really, you don't eat the clone. you eat the clone's offspring. apparently, normal mating from cloned animals cleans up any "programming errors" that occur during the cloning process. which is interesting in itself, almost a reset button on genes.