Orphan Black is a fantastic speculative fiction show from Space and BBC America that follows the (sometimes-creepy, always-nerve wracking) journey of Sarah Manning, who discovers she is just one of many identical clones. Just in time for the season two premiere tonight, science has created cloned embryos from fully-grown humans. Whoa.
Last year, science created the first-ever early-stage human clones, made from infant and fetal cells, which in itself is pretty wild. But this time, researchers from Advanced Cell Technology (funded partially by Korea) have created cloned embryos with the DNA of a 35-year-old man and a 75-year-old man.
Apparently, you can treat way, way more diseases with lab-grown tissue made from adult cells, so they’re hoping this new breakthrough will lead to developments in treatments for anything from heart attacks to Alzheimer’s. These new cloned embryos don’t come with the same controversy as creating clones from other embryos (which are destroyed in the process), and might actually be viable for implantation into human wombs. Which means, I guess, you could pretty soon give birth to yourself.
On a slightly less horrifying note, here’s the trailer for Orphan Black season two, which premieres tonight on Space and BBC America at 9pm EDT. Also, I don’t want to freak you guys out, but I’ve had the chance to see tonight’s premiere and whoa. Whoa. You’re going to love it, Clone Club. Seriously.
(via The Wall Street Journal , image via Orphan Black)
- Here’s a ton of Orphan Black season two trailers
- Science is using acid to make stem cells from regular cells
- This guy is trying to clone John Lennon from his tooth
