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EPISODE · Feb 20, 2018 · 6 MIN

How do crawdads clone themselves?

from This is a Science Show · host Dustin Driver

In science fiction they call it gray goo - nanobots that replicate without limits until eventually everything on the planet is a featureless gray goo. It’s the first thing that came to mind when I read a recent article in the NY Times about a new species of crayfish that clones itself and is taking over Europe. The species emerged just 25 years ago as a mutation. Normally, animals have two chromosomes, one from each parent. This female crayfish ended up with three, meaning that she could produce her own fertilized eggs without mating. And every egg is a perfect clone of the original crayfish. Oh, and crayfish lay hundreds of eggs at a time. More from the German Cancer Research Institute: https://www.dkfz.de/en/presse/pressemitteilungen/2018/dkfz-pm-18-07-A-clonal-crayfish-from-nature-as-a-model-for-tumors.php

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Feb 20, 2018

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How do crawdads clone themselves?

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