Cloning: pathways to a pluripotent future.

In this month's essay, Anne McLaren traces the winding and pitted pathways that connect the early days of the cell theory of biology in the 1830s to the new and unfolding era of cloning science and technology that came to worldwide attention in 1997 with the announcement of the birth of Dolly, the Scottish cloned sheep. The possibilities, including the potential for new medical treatments and perhaps even human cloning, are fantastic ... and ethically charged.