So being curious how cloning worked, I went and asked my bio-friend ungsunghero. The following may be over-simplified, but you should be able to get a grasp on how it works. Apparently to clone mammals, all you need is an egg of the same species and genetic information of the mammal you want to clone. A sperm is not required, which was quite shocking to me. To clone a mammal, you remove the entire nucleus from the egg and replace it with a nucleus from a donor cell. By doing this, you completely trash the original genetic information that the egg carried and by replacing it with a nucleus from a donor cell, you’ve given it the full set of genetic information instead of of half set that the original nucleus had. That’s why a sperm is NOT required at all. And with the full set of DNA, it can start generating cells and creating the mammal once you put it back inside a host.
You can read more about it at Summary of all published reports on mammalian cloning – Somatic cell nuclear transfer (cloning) efficiency.
Wikipedia: Somatic cell nuclear transfer (from decathanerd). Another confirmation on how it works. Apparently, it’s suppose to be as simple as sticking a needle into a egg, sucking out the nucleus, and then injecting the new nucleus. It is then stimulated in such a way that it begins to divide. Wonder what that really means…
Random Crap:
Doki Doki Panic: Special Feature (from ungsunghero) – Did you know Super Mario Bros. 2 was just a skin on a completely different game released in Japan called Doki Doki Panic? They actually made a Super Mario Bros. 2 that was a sequel to the 1st one (no pulling turnips from the ground), but decided this should be the sequel instead. However, this game was released later known as Super Mario Bros. 2: The Lost Levels.
SONGS TO WEAR PANTS TO (from deadlock) – I make songs in any genre, for free or for money, based on instructions people send me. This guy is so awesome! You should definitely check out some of the songs he made:
Several flash videos actually used the songs he made:
Mortal Kombat VS Street Fighter (from ungsunghero) – Apparently this is the 1st one that came out before the 2nd one I posted a day ago. There’s actually quite a few of these at The Kobmat Pavilion.
Laser etched Powerbook! (from /.) – I didn’t really plan using a $20,000 laser cutter on my 17″ Powerbook to etch a 19th-century engraving of a tarsier, a nocturnal mammal related to the lemur (also the vi book cover image, from O’Reilly), but it seemed like it had to done. The results are stunning – photos and more…
nathanng’s Gallery – a friend of mine from E190 back in Berkeley. His drawings are really good!