Curio Cabinet

The world's most famous sheep has us seeing double.

It takes a lot for a common domestic sheep to make international headlines! Then again, there was nothing common about the way that Dolly entered the world on July 5, 1996. Dolly was a clone: an artificially-created, genetically-identical reproduction of an existing organism. Although Dolly wasn't the first-ever clone ever, she was the first created from the cell of an adult animal—which, let's just say, caused an uproar.  

The term "clone" was coined in 1903 by Herbert J. Webber, a plant physiologist. He derived it from the Greek word "klon", or "twig", using it to describe the process of creating new plants from cuttings. Later, in 1938, embryologist Hans Spemann proposed the idea of replacing the nucleus of an egg cell with that of a different egg cell, creating a new organism. In 1958, developmental biologist John B. Gurdon built on Spemann's method to clone frogs, as did biologists Karl Illmenese and Peter Hope, who produced the world's first cloned mammal, a mouse, in 1981.  

In 1995, biologists Keith Campbell and Bill Ritchie of the Roslin Institute successfully created two sheep clones from embryonic cells. This progress excited fellow Roslin Institute scientist Ian Wilmut, and opened the door for a happy accident which would become Dolly the sheep. While trying to make more sheep clones from embryonic cells, scientists on Wilmut's team used some adult cells as a control group. The scientists took cells from the mammary tissue of a six-year-old Finn Dorset white sheep and injected them into unfertilized egg cells from a Scottish Blackface ewe, which had had their nuclei removed. Using electrical impulses, the scientists fused the eggs. They didn't expect any of the adult cells to successfully develop into an embryo. But when one did, they transplanted it into the uterus of a different Scottish Blackface ewe.  

Out of 277 cell fusions created by scientists, 29 embryos were implanted into 13 surrogate sheep, and just one developed fully. That one lamb, named Dolly, was born with a telltale white face—proof that she was a Finn Dorset white sheep, despite the Scottish Blackface ewe that birthed her. Dolly didn't receive her famous name, nor was the media informed of her birth, for several months after she was born. So where did her name come from? None other than famous country singer Dolly Parton. As scientist Ian Wilmut (rather unscientifically) put it, "Dolly is derived from a mammary gland cell and we couldn't think of a more impressive pair of glands than Dolly Parton's."  

Once the Roslin Institute announced Dolly's birth in February 1997, the sheep became a household name. The original purpose of the Institute's cloning experiments was to find out whether medicines could be produced from the milk of farm animals. But the main media buzz surrounding Dolly was the role of science in everyday life. If sheep could be cloned, why not humans? Could this technology allow entire human organs to be grown, for transplantees? What about cloned animal meat? In 2001, The United States passed a wide-ranging bill banning all forms of human cloning, even "therapeutic cloning," in which cells are harvested from embryos to treat disease. The law was passed largely due to the international conversation about cloning that surrounded Dolly.  

Dolly managed to live a normal life with other sheep at the Roslin Institute, despite the hubbub she caused. She even gave birth to several lambs, proving that clones could reproduce. At the age of six, Dolly contracted a virus which caused her to develop lung tumors. There was no evidence that Dolly's condition was linked to her being a clone. In 2003, she was euthanized to prevent suffering. Dolly's legacy lives on in the form of the cloning technology she helped popularize. More mammals have been cloned since Dolly's death, including pigs, cats, and dogs, ensuring that the world will continue seeing double for a long time!  

Road trips got a whole lot easier on today's date in 1956. That's when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act into law—saving millions of Americans from routinely taking wrong turns. In fact, roads were so aimless and ill-constructed in the early 20th century that automobiling was seen as "the last call of the wild." As in, trying to drive from one city to another would result in you getting utterly lost in byways. Most roads were unsafe, unorganized, prone to jamming, and completely out of sync with one another. This state of affairs lasted in varying degrees up into the '50s. Before then, Eisenhower, as Supreme Commander of the Allied forces that occupied Germany after World War II, encountered Germany's sturdy Autobahn highway. You might recognize the Autobahn, which still exists, as that zany European highway mostly lacking speed limits. In reality, the Autobahn was immaculately constructed and safe despite its breezy approach. It also served emergency and military purposes, allowing caravans of civilians or soldiers to efficiently flee or engage disasters.
 

Later, as the 34th POTUS, Eisenhower attempted to emulate the Autobahn stateside. He pushed for the Federal-Aid Highway Act as a way to create a highway system capable of easing, securing, and standardizing American transit. He also wanted it to be capable of operating as a network for tanks and aeronautic landing strips for jets, as well as evacuation routes from civilians in the event of nuclear war. Congress acquiesced and the $26 billion bill was paid for with a new gasoline tax. Many Americans weren't happy with their new highway system, though. That's because the highways cut through their homes. Many cities, like San Francisco, prevented roadbuilders. As a consequence, plenty of U.S. highways, nicknamed "roads to nowhere," terminate in abrupt deadends.
 

Fast forward to today. It's been a long time since Eisenhower's effort. To say our infrastructure has decayed since then would be an understatement. American infrastructure has routinely scored a D+ grade by the American Society of Civil Engineers. And this isn't a case where we do poorly in one area and great in another—we're mediocre across the board. Wastewater? D+ Schools? D+ Hazardous waste? D+ As for roads, we do slightly better with a D. Around a third of our urban roads are in poor condition. I'll leave out other details from these reports… it's not pretty. At any rate, we're way overdue for an infrastructure overhaul like the Federal-Aid Highway Act. Only, it will probably need to be even more comprehensive—something I can't imagine our current lackluster leadership will manage to materialize. I see bumps in the road ahead. I guess it's a good thing I pay for comprehensive car insurance!
 

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