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RE: Unpublished Data: Retired Research Scientist Seeks to Share Experiences, Ideas, Tips, Travel Photos, Dog Pictures, and Other Important Things You'll Never See in a Peer-Reviewed Journal.
Hello, I'm Oatmeal Joey, and DNA cloning is scary.
Hello! You mean scary like "Frankenstein" or scary like "difficult?
Yeah, DNA can be cool if you can grow ears on the back of mice to then use ear molds to help attach them onto people and as the mold falls apart later on...... but could DNA cloning also lead on the other hand to something like the Matrix or something bad like Frankenstein or worse?
In general "cloning" is a tool we use to transfer a piece of foreign DNA into a bacterium such as weakened E. coli. We can grow the bacterial cells overnight to produce a larger quantity of DNA for study. Also, it is a tool for separating many almost identical DNA sequences so they can be studied individually. Lab E. coli strains have mutations that prevent them from spreading out of the lab without very specific nutrients needed to survive. Yes, there are many cases of cloning with spectacular pictures of the results, but those represent sensational examples that grab attention in popular culture.