The Most Famous Sheep in the World

RERUN: Dolly The Sheep, the first ever successfully cloned mammal, was introduced to the world’s press at the Roslin Institute in Scotland on 22nd February, 1997.

Born seven months earlier, with the comparatively unremarkable name ‘Lamb Number 6LL3’, news of her birth had been leaked by The Observer before the scientific paper about her genesis could be published, sparking an international frenzy. 

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly ask why the international media (and Bill Clinton) took the opportunity to drum up panic about human cloning, rather than engage with the remarkable breakthrough she actually represented; reveal why Dolly developed a snack habit; and identify a missed opportunity for Dolly’s Tea Rooms in Roslin…

Further Reading:

• ‘Dolly the sheep’ (National Museum of Scotland): https://www.nms.ac.uk/dolly

• ‘Dolly the Sheep and the human cloning debate - twenty years later’ (The Conversation, 2016): https://theconversation.com/dolly-the-sheep-and-the-human-cloning-debate-twenty-years-later-63712

• ‘Retro Report: The Story of Dolly the Cloned Sheep’ (The New York Times, 2014): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tELZEPcgKkE

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The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

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