It’s heartbreaking to lose a beloved dog. And that heartbreak is almost inevitable. While lifespans vary from breed to breed, dogs live about 10 to 15 years, with small breeds living longer than large breeds. Meanwhile, humans can live 80 years or more. So, yes, the odds are good that if you love a dog, one day, you’re going to have to say goodbye.
But what if you cloned your dog? It can be done. In fact, dogs are one of the most successfully cloned animals. Would that mean you could bring back your beloved pet in a fresh, new body? Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.
(Credit: Akifyeva S/Shutterstock)
Akifyeva S/Shutterstock
In the popular imagination, a clone is an exact copy of the animal being cloned. But that’s not how biology works, explains Gita Gnanadesikan, an evolutionary biologist and comparative psychologist at Emory University who studies how genetics, environment, and ...
