"EB - Edward L. Ferman - The Best From Fantasy & Science Fiction 23rd EditionUC - SS" - читать интересную книгу автора (Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine)

"Calm yourself, senor. With my own eyes I saw her go to the boat and she was alone, I swear it. She does not have the little one."
Nolan thought of the hatred in Nina's eyes, and he shuddered. "Then what did she do with him?"
Moises shook bis head. "This I do not know. But I am sure she has no need of another infant."
"What are you talking about?"
"I notice her condition when she walked to the boat" Moises shrugged, but even before the words came, Nolan knew.
"Why do you look at me like that, senor? Is it not natural for a woman to bulge when she carries a baby in her belly?"
Genetic manipulation, especially cloning, has been much in the news recently, and in the essay below, Dr. Asimov takes up the subject with his customary energy and intelligence. Imagine, if you will, one hundred Isaac Asimov clonesl
Science: Clone, Clone of My Own
by ISAAC ASIMOV
On December 12, 1968, I gave a talk to a meeting of doctors and lawyers in San Jose, California.* Naturally, I was asked to speak on some subject that would interest both groups. Some instinct told me that medical malpractice suits might interest both but would nevertheless not be a useful topic. I spoke on genetic engineering instead, therefore, and, toward the end, discussed the matter of cloning.
In the audience was my good friend of three decadesЧthe well-known science fiction writer, boo vivant, and wit, Randall Garrett Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a piece of paper placed on the podium as I talked about cloning. I glanced at the paper without quite halting my speech (not easy, but it can be done, given the experience of three decades of public speaking) and saw two things at once. First, it was one of Randall's superlative pieces of satiric verse,
* Those of my Gentle Readers who know that under no circumstances wfll I take a plane need not register shock. I traveled to California and back by train. -Yea, they still run.
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and second, it was clearly intended to be sung to the tune of "Home on the Range."
Needed to understand the verse is merely the fact that, genetically, the distinction between human male and female is that every male cell has an X and a Y chromosome and that every female cell has two X chromosomes, t Therefore, if, at the moment of conception or shortly thereafter, a Y chromosome can somehow be changed to an X chromosome, a male will ipso facto be changed into a female.
Here, then, is "Randali's Song," to which I took the liberty of adding a verse myself:
(1st verse) O, give me a clone
Of my own ftesh and bone
With its Y chromosome changed to X;
And when it is grown
Then my own little clone
Will be of the opposite sex.
(chorus) Clone, clone of my own,
With its Y chromosome changed to X;
And when I'm alone
With my own little clone
We will both think of nothing but sex.
(2nd verse) O, give me a clone,
Hear my sorrowful moan,
Just a clone that is wholly my own;
And if it's an X
Of the feminine sex
O, what fun we will have when we're prone.
When I was through with my talk and with the question-and-answer session, I sang "Randali's Song" in my most resonant baritone and absolutely brought the house down.
Three and a half weeks later I sang it again at the annual banquet of the Baker Street Irregulars, that fine group of Sherlock Holmes fanciers, adjusting it slightly to its new task (O, give me some clones
tSee "Counting Chromosomes," F&SF, June 1968.
Clone, Clone of My Own
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/ Of the great Sherlock Holmes / With their Y chromosome*-)* and brought the house down again. But you may, by now, be asking yourself, "What's a clone?" It's been in the news a great deal lately, but recognizing a word and knowing what it represents can be two different things. So let's go into the matter-The word "clone" is Greek, exactly as it stands, provided you spell it in Greek letters, and it means "twig."
A clone is any organism (or group of organisms) that arises out of a cell (or group of cells) by means other than sexual reproduction. Put it another way: It is an organism that is the product of asexual reproduction. Put it still another way: It is an organism with a single parent, whereas an organism that arises from sexual reproduction (except where self-fertilization is possible) has two parents.
Asexual reproduction is a matter of course among one-celled organisms (though sexual reproduction can also take place), and it is also very common in the plant world.
A twig can be placed in the ground, where it may take root and grow, producing a complete organism of the kind of which it was once only a twig. Or the twig can be grafted to the branch of another tree (of a different variety even), where it can grow and flourish. In either case, it is an organism with a single parent, and sex has had nothing to do with its making. It is because human beings first encountered this asexual form of reproduction, hi connection with fruit trees probably, that such a one-parent organism of non-sexual origin is called a "twig"; that is, "clone."
And what of multicellular animals?
Asexual reproduction can take place among them as well. The more primitive the animalЧthat is, the less diversified and specialized its cells areЧthe more likely it is that asexual reproduction can take place.
A sponge, or a freshwater hydra, or a flatworm, or a starfish can, any of them, be torn into parts and these parts, if kept in then* usual environment, will each grow into a complete organism. The new organisms are clones.
Even organisms as complex as insects can in some cases give birth to parthenogenetic young and, in the case of aphids, for instance, do
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so as a matter of course. In these cases, an egg cell, containing only a half set of chromosomes, does not require union with a sperm cell to supply the other half set. Instead, the egg cell's half set merely duplicates itself, producing a full set, all from the female parent, and the egg then proceeds to divide and become an independent organism, again a kind of clone.