With a great limit on resources, cell division in the subsurface may take a very long time, therefore reproduction of microorganisms living deep within the earth may also take a very long time, such as centuries as was mentioned in the article. Fredrickson, James K. and Tullis C. Onstott. In an article that he wrote, Ian Wilmut discusses the imaginative ways that biomedical researchers are starting to develop use of the technology of cloning. Dolly, a sheep, was the first mammal to be cloned from an adult mammal, meaning she was an exact genetic copy of the adult. With this accomplishment came the hope of bringing numerous practical benefits in animal husbandry and medical science, while also answering critical biological questions.
Cloning is based on nuclear transfer, involving the use of two cells.
One is a recipient cell, which is normally an unfertilized egg taken from an animal soon after ovulation. The other is a donor cell, which is the one to be copied. The chromosomes of the recipient cell are sucked out and then the donor cell fuses with the recipient egg, and some of these cells start to develop like a normal offspring when implanted into the uterus of a surrogate mother. The cloned offspring in these experiments looked like the breed of sheep that donated the originating nucleus, rather than like their surrogate mothers or the egg donors. Since then their have been created healthy clones of cattle and mice also.