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Snuppy's a real clone, after all

Jennifer Guevin Former Managing Editor / Reviews
Jennifer Guevin was a managing editor at CNET, overseeing the ever-helpful How To section, special packages and front-page programming. As a writer, she gravitated toward science, quirky geek culture stories, robots and food. In real life, she mostly just gravitates toward food.
Jennifer Guevin

The dog that grabbed headlines last fall for being the world's first cloned canine is the real thing, according to several reports made public Wednesday. News that the Afghan hound, dubbed Snuppy, was the result of cloning experiments was considered a breakthrough in the field. But the veracity of these claims came into question after the project's head researcher, South Korean scientist Hwang Woo-suk, admitted that he falsified much of the data he previously reported on his widely publicized stem-cell research.

But a team of scientists at the Seoul National University and in the United States have confirmed the nature of Snuppy's existence. He is, in fact, a clone. Genetic testing was performed on preserved blood samples from Snuppy's now deceased father, Tai.