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Curiosities: Cloning an animal takes more than a strand of DNA

Q. Why can’t we clone from a strand of DNA?
Submitted by James Welch, seventh grade, Cherokee Middle School

A. “To clone” simply means to make a copy, says Tom Zinnen, who directs outreach for the UW-Madison Biotechnology Center. And scientists do routinely clone specific segments of DNA, such as genes, in order to study them.