Monkey business: cloning
① This week there was much brouhaha about the announcement of "the first cloned monkeys".
② Actually, that honour belongs to Tetra, an animal born in 1999.
③ But Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua are the first to be cloned by nuclear transfer, the technique used to create Dolly the Sheep.
④ Tetra was produced by the simpler process of embryo-splitting, an artificial way of creating identical twins.
⑤ Nuclear transfer copies an existing animal by inserting the nucleus of one of its cells into an egg cell of the same species.
⑥ In the past, this has proved impossible in primates, but Poo Muming of the Institute of Neuroscience in Shanghai pulled it off by starting with fetal rather than adult cells, and using advanced microscopy and special reagents.
⑦ Dr Poo suggests cloned monkeys might be used for disease research.
⑧ Most reporting, however, concentrated on the idea that what could be done to monkeys might be done to people.
▍普通生词好句
monkey business: 胡闹；恶作剧；骗人的把戏 (behavior that is not acceptable or is dishonest)
brouhaha /ˈbru:hɑ:hɑ:/: n. 吵闹；骚动
clone /kləʊn/: vt. 克隆；无性繁殖
artificial /ɑ:tɪˈfɪʃ(ə)l/: adj. 人工的；人造的
pull sth. off / pull off sth.：圆满完成；成功做成
concentrate on /ˈkɒns(ə)ntreɪt/: 专注于
▍话题相关语料及背景
Tetra：
1999年，一只恒河猴胚胎被一分为二来创造两只同卵双胞胎，一只名叫泰特拉（Tetra）的猴子通过该技术培育，它被称为世界上第一只克隆猴，但培育它的过程中并不涉及DNA转移的复杂过程。
Dolly the Sheep：
20年前，克隆羊多利在爱丁堡的罗斯林研究所（Roslin Institute）诞生，创造了历史。这是科学家首次成功克隆哺乳动物。
在那之后，科学家采取相同的体细胞核移植技术克隆了许多其他哺乳动物，包括牛、猪、狗、猫和鼠。
nuclear transfer /ˈnju:klɪə/: 细胞核转移
embryo-splitting /ˈɛmbrɪəʊ/: n. 胚胎分割
identical twins /ʌɪˈdɛntɪk(ə)l/: 同卵双胞胎
fraternal twins /frəˈtəːn(ə)l/: 异卵双胞胎
egg cell: 卵细胞
primate /ˈprʌɪmeɪt, ˈprʌɪmət/: n. 灵长类动物
fetal cell /ˈfi:t(ə)l/: 胎细胞
adult cell /ˈadʌlt/: 成年细胞；成体细胞
microscopy /mʌɪˈkrɒskəpi/: n. 显微镜的使用
reagent /rɪˈeɪdʒ(ə)nt/: n. 试剂
