From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  March 2003:

Dolly,  6,  the sheep who was the world’s first cloned
mammal,  was euthanized due to an incurable lung disease and chronic
arthritis  on February 14 at the Roslin Institute in Midlothian,
Scotland,  her lifelong home.  Produced from an udder cell from a
six-year-old ewe,  Dolly was born in July 1996 and named after the
singer Dolly Parton.  At age two she showed signs of premature aging,
and by her death she appeared to be twice her chronological age.
Similar effects have now been seen in all mammals cloned to date.
Researchers now believe that cloned animals are the biological age of
the cells they were made from–a major setback to the theory that
cloning might enable humans to practice self-perpetuation,  as each
clone would in effect be born at the same biological age as the cell
source,  and all would reach elderly decrepitude at the same time.
Dolly’s death “highlights more than ever the foolishness of those who
want to legalize human reproductive cloning,” said Alan Colman,  one
of the scientists whose work produced her.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  March 2003:

Kalpana Chawla,  41,  remembered in
Indian newspaper obituaries right after mention
that she was an astronaut as “A devout Hindu and
fourth generation vegetarian,”  was killedon
February 1 along with all six of her flightmates
when the space shuttle Columbia exploded over
Texas during re-entry into the Earth’s
atmosphere.  Born to Pakistani immigrant parents
in Haryana state,  India,  Chawla married flight
instructor Jean Pierre Harrison soon after
starting aerospace engineering studies at the
University of Texas at Arlington.  She lived in
Texas for the rest of her life,  but maintained
her links to India as well.  Haryana residents
saluted her first spaceflight in 1997 with a
torchlight parade that they hoped she could see
from orbit.

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