Overview

The cloning of Dolly in 1996 from the cell of an adult sheep was a pivotal moment in history. For the first time, a team of scientists, led by Ian Wilmut and Keith Campbell, was able to clone a whole mammal using a single cultured adult body cell, a breakthrough that revolutionized three technologies - genetic engineering, genomics, and cloning by nuclear transfer from adult cells - and brought science ever closer to the possibility of human cloning. In this definitive account, the scientists who accomplished this stunning feat explain their hypotheses and experiments, their conclusions, and the ethical and scientific ramifications of their work. Written with award-winning science writer Colin Tudge. The Second Creation is a landmark work that details the most exciting and challenging scientific discovery of the twentieth century.

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Reviews

Fascinating and comprehensive...Not many books describe how science is actually done. James Watson's The Double Helix was one, and this book is another...Non-scientists will not learn a lot of biology, but they will also get a good idea of what makes scientists tick. - Anne McLaren, Nature

"""Fascinating and comprehensive...Not many books describe how science is actually done. James Watson's The Double Helix was one, and this book is another...Non-scientists will not learn a lot of biology, but they will also get a good idea of what makes scientists tick."" - Anne McLaren, Nature"""

When Dolly, the cloned sheep, met the media in 1997, she unleashed a torrent of headlines, articles, editorials, and at least one book (Clone ,by Gina Kolata). Another after three years seems superfluous, but its the one to read.Dolly was not the first cloned animal, the first cloned sheep, or even the first cloned sheep at the Roslin Institute in Scotland. She was, however, the first mammal cloned from an adult of her species: a dazzling accomplishment, which provoked tabloid fantasies about human cloning. In fact, cloning was not the researchers goalit was merely a step toward creating an animal genetically transformed in a useful manner. Dolly got the headlines, but Polly, born a year later, is more useful: not only is Polly a clone, but she is fitted with a human gene for anti-hemophilic factor, which she secretes into her milk. These sheep symbolize the roaring triumph of a late 20thcentury revolution less publicized than the computer revolution but actually more important, for cloning and genetic engineering will allow us control over elements in our lives from food to medicine to aging. Even more significant, they are teaching us precisely how living things grow and function (we learned how nonliving things function early this century with relativity and quantum mechanics). Wilmut and Campbell are the scientists most responsible for Dolly, but the book is actually written by veteran British science writer Tudge (The Engineer in the Garden, 1994). A thorough professional, Tudge immersed himself in the subject for two years, picked the brains of Wilmut and Campbell, and understood the implications of their work. With their help, he begins at the beginning with Mendel and Darwin, and in lucid prose he describes the scientists, the experiments, and the growth of knowledge that accelerated after the discovery of DNA structure in 1953 and exploded a generation later. By the time he explains how Dollys cloning was achieved, readers will understand the details and appreciate the accomplishment. An important book and impressive piece of science writing. (Kirkus Reviews)

Author Information

Ian Wilmut is a scientist at the Roslin Institute in Scotland. Keith Campbell is a cell biologist and embryologist now working at the University of Nottingham. Colin Tudge is a three-time winner of the Glaxo / ABSW Science Writer of the Year Award.

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