It may seem like cloning really only shows up regularly in science fiction, but it turns out, it's been a sneaky, significant real-world process for a super long time! In this episode we learn about cloning found in nature, labs, and...this very podcast??
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[Truth or Fail]
Crayfish that’s been cloning itself might help us study prion diseases
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/05/science/mutant-crayfish-clones-europe.html
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/904708
Scientists envision a new insect repellant while cloning hemlock trees
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/801445
Athlete’s foot fungus rejects sex for cloning
https://today.duke.edu/2018/02/toenail-fungus-gives-sex-infect-human-hosts
https://academic.oup.com/genetics/article/208/4/1657/6084243
https://gizmodo.com/the-fungi-that-cause-athletes-foot-have-given-up-on-sex-1823265768
[Trivia Question]
First cloned cat, which was named Copy Cat
https://vetmed.tamu.edu/news/press-releases/texas-am-says-goodbye-to-cc-worlds-first-cloned-cat/
https://www.npr.org/2020/03/08/813384347/remembering-cc-the-cloned-cat
[Fact Off]
Electric ant queens and males sexually reproduce but actually like two different clonal species
A 34-member “twin study” with Amazon molly fish clones
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1009151
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-43069-6
https://phys.org/news/2021-02-defeating-enemy-evolution-clone-fish.html
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4919929/
https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/twins-study/about/
[Ask the Science Couch]
Cross-species cloning and back-breeding as de-extinction strategies
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK223960/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4157387/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC521203/
https://lsspjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/2195-7819-10-3
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/article/species-revival-bringing-back-extinct-animals
[Butt One More Thing]
Portuguese man o’ war is a colony of zooid clones, including gastrozooids for digesting (and maybe pooping)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-51842-1
https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/portuguese-man-o-war.html