Washington, Jan 28: Clonaid, the firm funded by the Raelian sect, for the first time has put video clips of its purported clandestine lab on its website, but the images prove nothing, a US expert said. In the four-and-a-half minute clip that can be seen on the Clonaid site, the company's President, French chemist Brigitte Boisselier, handles equipment and comments on what she describes as steps in the human cloning procedure. The location of the lab is not specified. "She has the two essential basics: a micro-manipulator attached to a binocular dissecting microscope, and a square wave pulse generator (embryonic cell fusion machine), said William Muir, professor of genetics at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. "It shows they have the basic equipment, but it's like showing a picture of a race car and starting it up; it does not mean they know how to drive it," Muir said, adding, "It is inconclusive."
Without offering a shred of proof, Boisselier has announced that three cloned humans have been born, claims greeted by scientists with considerable skepticism. Clonaid, based in Las Vegas, Nevada, was founded in 1997 by the Raelians, who claim 55,000 followers worldwide.
The movement's French Founder, Claude Vorilhon, describes himself as a prophet and claims cloning will enable humanity to attain immortality by allowing humans to "download" their consciousness into successive bodies.
Bureau Report