But the inescapable truth is that a visit with Dolly feels a bit like a visit with an aging rock star. Researchers interested in answering questions about cloning have in large part turned their attention to mice, which last year were shown to be clonable by the dozens with relative ease. Other researchers here and at other laboratories around the world are focusing on pigs, which if cloned could serve as sources of human-like organs. At the same time, Dolly's coy charisma is a lesson in how unscary biotechnology can be. Indeed, today it's hard to believe that in her neonatal prime, when her picture first appeared on the cover of the scientific journal Nature, this same sheep paralyzed the world with fearful visions of mass-produced Adolf Hitlers, Tom Cruises or worse.
Some sheep apparently feel the same way.
David, the ram that sired Dolly's first lamb a year ago, was reunited with Dolly a few weeks ago for a few hours. He apparently fell for her all over again because Dolly is now pregnant again. Dolly's debut on the celebrity circuit occurred in the spring of 1997, when her fleece was sheared as part of a charity effort for children with the lung disease cystic fibrosis. Often overlooked in the mayhem following her birth was that scientists cloned Dolly as part of a project to develop animals that make human drugs in their milk. Since cystic fibrosis is expected to be the first ailment to benefit from that technology, a British trust and the BBC held a competition for the design of a sweater that would be made from Dolly's wool.