Tuesday, Janusary 29, 2019
Dolly the Sheep
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Kato, are you an enthusiastic Dolly Parton fan?
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Well… I like beautiful women, but I’m not much of an enthusiastic Dolly Parton fan.
Then how come you’ve pasted her photo in the above?
It’s a long story.
Then make it short and tell me about it, Kato…
Okay, if you say so… Actually, I borrowed a DVD and watched a movie called “Never let me go”.
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“Never Let Me Go” is a 2010 British dystopian romantic drama film based on Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2005 novel “Never Let Me Go”.
The film was directed by Mark Romanek from a screenplay by Alex Garland.
Never Let Me Go is set in an alternative history and centres on Kathy, Ruth and Tommy portrayed by Carey Mulligan,
Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield respectively, who become entangled in a love triangle.
Prior to the book’s publication, Garland had approached the film’s producers (Andrew Macdonald and Andrew Reich) about a possible film, and wrote a 96-page script.
The producers initially had trouble finding an actress to play Kathy.
Mulligan was cast in the role after Peter Rice, the head of the company financing the film, recommended her by text message while watching her performance in “An Education”.
Mulligan, a fan of the book, enthusiastically accepted the role, as it had long been a wish of hers to have the opportunity to play the part.
The film’s message and themes were the factors that attracted Garfield to become a part of the film.
The film premiered at the 37th annual Telluride Film Festival in September 2010, where the audience responded positively to its message.
The film was also screened at festivals including the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival, and the 54th London Film Festival which it opened.
The film was met with generally positive reviews from film critics, with most reviewers praising the cast’s performances.
Plot
The film begins with on-screen captions explaining that a medical breakthrough in 1952 has permitted the human lifespan to be extended beyond 100 years.
It is narrated by 28-year-old Kathy H as she reminisces about her childhood at a boarding school called Hailsham, as well as her adult life after leaving the school.
One day, a new teacher, Miss Lucy, quietly informs the students of their fate: they are destined to be organ donors and will die, or “complete”, in their early adulthood.
Shortly afterward she is fired by the headmistress, Miss Emily, for sharing this revelation with the children.
As time passes, Kathy falls in love with Tommy, but Ruth and Tommy begin a relationship and stay together throughout the rest of their time at Hailsham.
Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy, now teenagers, are rehoused in cottages on a farm in 1985.
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They are permitted to leave the grounds on day trips, but are resigned to their eventual fate.
At the farm, they meet former pupils of schools similar to theirs, and it is revealed that they are all clones.
They also hear rumours of the possibility of “deferral”—a temporary reprieve from organ donation for donors who are in love and can prove it.
The relationship between Tommy and Ruth becomes sexual, and jealousy causes Kathy and Ruth to break their friendship.
The lonely Kathy leaves and becomes a “carer”—a clone who is given a temporary reprieve from donation as a reward for supporting and comforting donors as they are made to give up their organs.
Tommy and Ruth’s relationship ends.
In 1994, Kathy is still working as a carer, and has watched many clones gradually die as their organs are harvested.
Kathy, who has not seen Ruth or Tommy since the farm, discovers Ruth, frail after two donations.
They find Tommy, who is also weakened by his donations, and drive to the sea.
There, Ruth admits that she did not love Tommy, and only seduced him because she was afraid to be alone.
She is consumed with guilt and has been searching for a way to help Tommy and Kathy.
She believes that the rumours of “deferral” are true, and has found the address of the gallery owner, Madame, who she thinks may grant deferrals to couples in love.
Ruth dies on the operating table shortly afterward.
Kathy and Tommy finally begin a relationship.
Tommy explains to Kathy that he has been creating art in the hope that it will aid deferral.
Tommy and Kathy drive to visit Madame, who lives with the headmistress of Hailsham.
The two teachers tell them that there is no such thing as deferral, and that Tommy’s artworks will not help him.
As they take in the news on their return journey, Tommy breaks down in an explosion of rage and frustration, and he and Kathy cling to each other in grief.
SOURCE: “Never Let Me Go (2010 film)”
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
It sounds interesting, but I don’t see Dolly Parton in the above plot summary… Does she play as one of the characters in the above movie?
Oh no… Dolly Parton doesn’t show up in the above movie… As you see, the three major characters, Kathy, Ruth and Tommy, are all clones… Diane, do you know what a clone is, don’t you?
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Yes, I do.
There used to be a world-famous clone named Dolly.
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5 July 1996 – 14 February 2003
Dolly was a female domestic sheep, and the first mammal cloned from an adult somatic cell, using the process of nuclear transfer.
She was cloned by Keith Campbell, Ian Wilmut and colleagues at the Roslin Institute, part of the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and the biotechnology company PPL Therapeutics, based near Edinburgh.
She has been called “the world’s most famous sheep” by sources including BBC News and Scientific American.
The cell used as the donor for the cloning of Dolly was taken from a mammary gland, and the production of a healthy clone therefore proved that a cell taken from a specific part of the body could recreate a whole individual.
On Dolly’s name, Wilmut stated “Dolly is derived from a mammary gland cell and we couldn’t think of a more impressive pair of glands than Dolly Parton’s”.
Legacy
After cloning was successfully demonstrated through the production of Dolly, many other large mammals were cloned, including pigs, deer, horses and bulls.
Making cloned mammals was highly inefficient.
In 1996 Dolly was the only lamb that survived to adulthood from 277 attempts.
By 2014 Chinese scientists were reported to have 70–80% success rates cloning pigs and in 2016, a Korean company, Sooam Biotech, was producing 500 cloned embryos a day.
Wilmut, who led the team that created Dolly, announced in 2007 that the nuclear transfer technique may never be sufficiently efficient for use in humans.
In July 2016, four identical clones of Dolly (Daisy, Debbie, Dianna, and Denise) were alive and healthy at nine years old.
Scientific American concluded in 2016 that the main legacy of Dolly the sheep has not been cloning of animals but in advances into stem cell research.
After Dolly, researchers realised that ordinary cells could be reprogrammed to induced pluripotent stem cells which can be grown into any tissue.
The first successful cloning of a primate species using the same method for producing Dolly was reported in January 2018.
Two identical clones of a macaque monkey, Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua, were created by researchers in China and were born in late 2017.
SOURCE: “Dolly (sheep)”
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I see… So, Dolly the Sheep was named after Dolly Parton, wasn’t she?
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Dolly Parton
You’re absolutely right on that.
But how come you’ve picked up the above movie?
As you know, Ishiguro’s 2005 novel (“Never Let Me Go”) was named by “Time” as the best novel of the year, and was included in the magazine’s list of the 100 best English-language novels published between 1923 and 2005.
I didn’t know that.
Growing up in a Japanese family in the UK, Ishiguro says, his background enabled him to see things from a different perspective to that of many of his British peers.
A different perspective?… Like what?
Around 1990, Ishiguro had initially warmed the concept of the novel (“Never let me go”) over nuclear bombs dropped at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Nuclear bombs intead of clone technolog?
That’s right.
However, the concept didn’t take off easily… One day the news that the cloned sheep “Dolly” was produced in Scotland jumps into his ear in the latter half of the 1990s.
I see… So, that was the trigger of his novel idea, wasn’t it?
You’re right, Diane… He says that inspiration for bringing down his theme by incorporating state-of-the-art technologies of genetic engineering instead of nuclear incidents.
Then Ishiguro wrote the novel on that concept, didn’t he?
Yes, he did… In 2017, the Swedish Academy awarded Ishiguro the Nobel Prize in Literature, describing him in its citation as a writer “who, in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world”.
I see… Quite interesting!… But I don’t like the idea that our humans take advantage of clones simply as organ doners, who would die young as if they were thrown out as used-up batteries.
I know what you mean, Diane… It’s kinda dystopia in terms of a clone’s point of view, isn’t it?
Clones such as Kathy, Ruth and Tommy in the movie are just like you and me… They’re all humans, right? The only difference is, clones come from not the womb but a glass tube in a laboratory.
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You’re telling me, Diane.
Is there a better way to get an organ without sacrificing clones?
Yes, there is.
No kidding!
Indeed, there is a better way to get an organ without sacrificing clones… Sir John Bertrand Gurdon is a British biologist… Specialty is developmental biology.
What did he do?
He is best known for his pioneering research in nuclear transplantation and cloning… Using this cloning technolgy he made clones of a frog… This research has led to the idea that mature cells can be converted to stem cells.
What are stem cells?
Stem cells are cells that can differentiate into other types of cells, and can also divide in self-renewal to produce more of the same type of stem cells.
How come they’re so great?
Well…, making use of Gurdon’s cloning technology, Shinya Yamanaka (a Japanese reseacher) made iPS cells, which can propagate indefinitely, as well as give rise to every other cell type in the body such as neurons, heart, pancreatic and liver cells… In a nutshell, they would be used to replace organs damaged.
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So, we humans don’t have to make clones for the sake of organ transplant, do we?
No, we don’t have to… In 2012, John Bertrand Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for this discovery.
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How marvellous it is!
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So much for cloning technology.
Now talking about musical instruments, I’ll show here an unusual musical organ.
Gess what?
You also have this particular musical organ.
You might as well play it by yourself.
Now see the performance by this particular musical organ.
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Mr. Mathane
In any road, I expect Kato will write another interesting article soon.
So please come back to see me.
Have a nice day!
Bye bye …
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If you’ve got some time,
Please read one of the following artciles:
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Hi, I’m June Adams.
Kato is a real movie lover, who tries to watch 1001 movies.
As a matter of fact, he has already accomplished his goal.
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Kato watched “The Arabian Nights” or “One Thousand and One Nights” as his 1001th movie.
You might just as well want to view it.
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The stories in “the Arabian Nights” were collected over many centuries by various authors, translators, and scholars across West, Central, and South Asia and North Africa.
The tales themselves trace their roots back to ancient and medieval Arabic, Persian, Indian, Egyptian and Mesopotamian folklore and literature.
In particular, many tales were originally folk stories from the Caliphate era, while others, especially the frame story, are most probably drawn from the Pahlavi Persian work Hazār Afsān which in turn relied partly on Indian elements.
What is common throughout all the editions of the Nights is the initial frame story of the ruler Shahryār and his wife Scheherazade and the framing device incorporated throughout the tales themselves.
The stories proceed from this original tale.
Some are framed within other tales, while others begin and end of their own accord.
Some editions contain only a few hundred nights, while others include 1,001 or more.
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ところで、愛とロマンに満ちた
レンゲさんのお話をまとめて
『レンゲ物語』を作りました。
もし、レンゲさんの記事をまとめて読みたいならば、
次のリンクをクリックしてくださいね。
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とにかく、今日も一日楽しく愉快に
ネットサーフィンしましょうね。
じゃあね。
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Denman Blog2 