This is very interesting.

Genes don't contain an exact description of the animal that contains them. Instead, the genes contain a sort of "building plan." Cells in the developing fetus do different things depending on the nature of the cells around them, and other signals such as hormonal information. As the building plan unfolds over time during embryonic development, the features of the resulting developed animal appear based on the interaction of the genes with these signals.

But there is clearly a random element. In the field of chaos theory, an example is frequently given: "A butterfly flapping its wings over Sweden may cause a hurricane over the Bahamas six months later." That is, very tiny changes in initial conditions may be a cause of huge effects in the long run.

In the developing fetus, it now seems clear that small random fluctuations cause differences in development; for instance subtle differences in the locations of cells with respect to each other when there are only 8 cells in the zygote may be a "butterfly flapping its wings" which leads to long-term differences.

One thing that is striking about the cloned kitty is that it can be seen as evidence that this does not only apply to physical characteristics such as fur color patterns, but perhaps to behavioral and emotional aspects as well. Logically, if random chance applies to one, there is no reason it shouldn't apply to the other.

That is, there has long been a debate about "nature vs. nurture" where the genes are considered to be "nature" and environmental factors such as parenting are considered to be "nurture". But here we have evidence that there is another major factor: random chance, independent of either genes or environmental factors.
11:05:09 AM