So cloning is nothing new, but for the first time we see healthy lab mice cloned from the cells of dead mice – some articles are calling this a ‘resurrection’, although it is nothing of the sort.

It is, however, a big step forward for genetic reserach – lifting the possibility of cloning long-extinct species out of the realms of pure science fiction and into the ‘almost there’ zone. A team of Japanese researchers from Kobe, Japan, used a modified method to clone these mice from tissues that had been frozen for up to 16 years.

Here’s a clip from Japanese news, with a really clear section showing what looks like the insertion of the nucleus into an egg:

For a useful reader, here is the NewScientist article. Here’s another one from the Guardian.

As ever, one of the best reading sources is the Not Exactly Rocket Science blog, where Ed Yong tackles the research paper directly in his article and makes it easy to understand. Check it out here.

Learning idea: ‘dub’ the Japanese clip into your own language, using the information from the articles above.

How did they achieve it? How does it differ from normal cloning? What surprising results did they encounter?

Try to get your story to complement the images in the video clip.

I can just see Jeff Goldblum‘s gurning face as runs for his life from a cloned dodo…