Newspaper report

 

Ian Wilmut and Dolly the sheep

THE FIRST CONCRETE EXPERIMENT OF CLONING!

Raimundo Bengoa
February 23rd of 1997

EDINBURG - Yesterday, in February 22nd, was announced the succesful clonation of a sheep, called Dolly, from an adult cell, using the process of nuclear transfer, in the Rosling Institute, in Scotland. She was cloned by the scientists Ian Wilmut, Keith Campbell and other colleagues.

Dolly the sheep, also called 6LL3, was born in the 5th of July of 1996, but her birth wasn´t announced until today. The scientists that cloned Dolly were helped by the biotechnology company PPL Therapeutics near Edinburg in Scotland. From the moment in her existence was announced, she has been called the "world´s most famous sheep".

The cell that was used to clone Dolly was taken from a mammary gland, and the resulting healthy clone (Dolly) proved that a cell taken from a specific part of the body could recreate a whole individual.

Ian Wilmut is very excited about this success.  "The potential of cloning to alleviate suffering... is so great in the medium term that I believe it would be immoral not to clone human embryos for this purpose" said Wilmut.


Bibliography:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolly_(sheep)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/d/dolly_the_sheep.htm
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/after-dolly-by-ian-wilmut-and-roger-highfield-411038.html

Reading Comprehension "The Birthmark"

Questions

13. What is more important, perfection or life?
I think that is much more important the life than the perfection, because, from my opinion, nobody can be perfect. Trying to reach perfection is an eternal thing that in some persons transform in a vice, trying to fix their body again and again

14. How far will a person go to achieve success?

Sometimes, a person can do anything to achieve success. For example, Aylmer with his wife. He was so obsessed in removing the mark and achieve the perfection of his wife that he did serious things in his attempt. Also there are persons that fix their faces, bodies, etc. to achieve perfection.

15. Why was Aylmer so disturbed by the birthmark, when others considered it a "charm"? What does he find so unacceptable about it?
He was so disturbed by the birthmark because he wanted his wife to be perfect, and that birthmark ruined her perfection (from the point of view of Aylmer).

22. Did Aylmer love Georgiana as much as he loved science?
No, Aylmer loved more science than his wife, because in his attempt to remove the mark, he killed his wife, because his obsession with science.


23. Did Aylmer´s obsession with the birthmark reflect his obsession with science or his obsession with his wife?
His obsession with the birthmark reflected his obsession with science, because it was a tremendous opportunity to prove his abbilities in science. Also it can be considered that it reflected his obsession with his wife because reflected his obsession with the perfection of her.

Themes in Frankenstein

Quote: "They are dead; and but one feeling in such a solitude can persuade me to preserve my life. If I were engaged in any high undertaking or design, fraught with extensive utility to my fellow-creatures, then I could live to fullfill it. But such is not my destiny; I must pursue and destroy the being to whom I gave existence; then my lot on earth will be fullfiled, and I may die" (Shelley).

Themes: solitude, creation and guilt

Explanation: Victor Frankenstein is feeling guilty about his creation. He is explaining that all his loved ones are dead, because the Monster killed them. So, he wants to destroy the Creature to finish with all these murders commited by the Monster, and then he is thinking about commiting a suicide, because there is nothing so worth living, because all his loved ones are dead.