According to a Reuters story, Hwang Woo-suk, erstwhile science superstar who was disgraced when his pioneering stem cell research was unmasked as a hoax, has been offered a job. Unfortunately for him, the offer comes from a UFO cult that says it has produced six human clones.

Good one, God.

The company, Clonaid (which has links to the Raëlians, a group that believes humans were cloned from prehistoric alien visitors to Earth), said it had offered him a post in one of its laboratories.

The firm has never provided proof of the six clones it says it has produced and does not reveal where the laboratories it says its has are located.

Hwang quit his post at Seoul National University in December after his claim to have cloned human embryonic stem cells, which could be used to treat diseases such as Parkinson’s, was shown to have been faked.

“We at Clonaid believe that Dr Hwang has cloned human embryos and has the knowledge to develop stem cell lines,” the company said in a message posted on its website on Sunday.

Whether or not Hwang Woo-suk joins with Clonaid, the world should find out this month if they’ve really cloned a human. Last week, according to a BBC report, Clonaid was ordered by a U.S. court to reveal the whereabouts of a supposedly cloned baby girl and her mother.

An executive with the company, Clonaid, was also summoned to appear in court in Florida, after lawyers demanded that the state authorities appoint a guardian for the child.
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The witness subpoena and summons were approved at the request of attorney Bernard Siegel, who has filed a lawsuit demanding a guardian for baby Eve.

[Clonaid’s vice president Thomas Kaenzig] must appear in court or risks to be held in contempt

The papers were delivered to Clonaid’s vice president Thomas Kaenzig before his public speech in Fort Lauderdale, Mr Siegel told the Associated Press news agency.

Mr Kaenzig - who must appear at the hearing in January - did not make an immediate comment on the papers.

Tags: cloning | science | junk science | genetics | news | blog | weblog

Actually, it’s called resilin, a rubber-like substance that its creator, Dr Chris Elvin from CSIRO in Queensland says:

…Is, a very, very efficient rubber material that is found and occurs in most insects, but probably best exemplified by fleas, which are able to jump very, very high distances and they are able to do this repeatedly.”

The scientists first determined that resilin is what enables fleas to jump so high, then they located the gene for resilin in the sequenced genome of the fruit fly and cloned it into a bacterium.

The hope is that eventually resilin could be used as a replacement for arteries and spinal discs.

“What we’ve been able to do is recreate in the lab what nature has taken hundreds of millions of years to evolve,” Dr Elvin said.

Read the whole article at ABC News Online.

It’s a cornucopia of cloning with these articles about cows imbued with human genes and an imminent endorsement from the FDA that will allow cloned livestock to be sold in the United States:

• New Zealand to clone cows with human genes - NZ scientists intend to use human cells to genetically engineer cows to produce milk high in a protein that will boost the body’s natural defences against disease. The scientists at crown research institute AgResearch have approval from the Environmental Risk Management Authority to undertake laboratory experiments and intend to apply to take it a stage further and create transgenic cows. AgResearch will partner Netherlands-based Pharming Group to produce the milk. Read the whole article.

• Where’s the cloned beef? - The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is expected to rule soon on whether or not meat and dairy products from cloned livestock are safe to eat, which raises an important question: Cloned beef - will it really be what’s for dinner?

Already, hundreds of cloned cows, pigs and other animals are living on farms throughout the United States, ready to start producing cloned offspring, awaiting an endorsement from the FDA.

The agency has been looking into the issue for more than three years. And now, government officials, industry leaders and consumer groups are all saying that they expect the FDA to propose to permit sales of cloned byproducts - a decision that will be subject to 60 days of public comment, and some additional review.
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However, consumer groups say that they believe Americans will refuse to feed their families biotech food. The International Food Information Council backs this claim up with a recent survey they did throughout the United States, asking consumers whether they would buy cloned milk, meat and eggs. Sixty-three percent said they would not buy cloned byproducts - not even if the FDA approves them.

Read the whole article.

As for me, I don’t care whether the meat is cloned or not as long as it wants to be eaten.

Ah, the joy of being at the top of the food chain, where happiness is just a grilled hamburger or roasted chicken away! The only problem with being a practicing omnivore is that nagging guilt that comes when you see a cow or chicken being slaughtered. But thanks to the miracle of cloning, livestock may live to ripe old age while supplying us with plenty of meat.

Local6.com just posted this story:

Researchers in the U.S. say the technology now exists to produce processed meats such as burgers and sausages, starting with cells taken from cows, chickens, pigs, fish or other animals.

Growing meat without the animal would not only reduce the need for the animals -- which often are kept in less than ideal conditions -- but may also address a number of environmental ills blamed on meat production.

Cultured meat could also be tailored to be healthier than farm-raised meat, while satisfying the increasing demand for protein by the world's growing population, proponents say.

If this pans out, it'll put an end to famine--take that, Black Horseman!