Primate – Fusion Nepal

Anarchy. Rebellion. High drama.

It was all happening at San Antonio International Airport, where a crafty, incredibly frightened rhesus macaque was on the loose after escaping from its transport crate on Monday afternoon.

According to local CNN affiliate KSAT, the primate fugitive, identified as Dawkins, was in transit after an American Airlines flight from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, via Chicago.

Dawkins’ destination? The Born Free USA sanctuary in La Salle County, Texas, which claims to be one of the country’s largest primate sanctuaries. Read more…

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Primates have been cloned before, but this is the first time monkeys were duplicated using the same technique — called somatic cell nuclear transfer —that scientists used to clone Dolly the sheep, in 1996.

Beyond the obvious scientific achievement — whose results were published today in the journal Cell — the important advancement here is that these scientists plan to produce more cloned monkeys in the coming months, and believe they can make primate cloning relatively cheap. The scientists underscore that these genetically identical animals, akin to identical human twins, are to be used only to advance human medicine. Read more…

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