Re: Question about clones


Posted by Amaranth Rose on Feb 12, 2004 at 10:50
(65.172.150.222)

Re: Question about clones (Debi)

Well, look at it this way. If you take the kernels from an ear of corn that's, let's say, a dihybrid cross, from a large batch of corn that's been bred so that for all intents and purposes genetically identical, and you plant that seed corn, do all the plants in the row look exactly alike? Have you ever driven past a corn field and seen row upon row of exactly identical plants, all branching in exactly the same way, all holding their leaves exactly the same? They're all identical genetically. Yet each plant is different. No two plants in the row ever are EXACTLY alike, down to the ribs in the keaves and the distance between nodes. Yet they're genetically identical. I'd have a hard time believing that a cloned individual could ever have the exact same fingerprint, retinal patterns, or patterns of veins in their skin as the original. There's too much room for variation in the processes of cell replication, differentiation and death that have to occur to give rise to the viable fetus. You do realize that cells have to die in order for the final organism to take place? If not, the blood vessels would be solid, for example.

I'm writing a book right now that uses an offshoot of cloning to replicate people. One way they can tell who is whom is to use infrared visualization to "read" their blood vessel patterns. Randomness is the "order" of the universe; get used to it. :-)


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