Rephrase the title:Scientists manage to clone world’s first healthy rhesus monkey!

Just like flying cars, cloning has always been a mainstay of sci-fi. And since Dolly the sheep baaa-ed her way into the world nearly 30 years ago, we’ve come a long way.

Now, Chinese scientists have cracked another egg in the cloning game, successfully creating the first healthy rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatt) called Retro. This feat is a giant leap for mankind… well, monkeykind at least. It could pave the way for new treatments for all sorts of ailments.

Since Dolly’s big debut in 1996, scientists have cloned over 20 different creatures using a trick called somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). But primates have proven tricky.

For instance, one earlier experiment only saw one monkey out of 35 foetuses make it, and even then, it only lasted a day. Even the current “successful” experiment took a whopping 133 tries to get one healthy monkey, as some eagle-eyed researchers pointed out. Still, it’s a far cry from previous attempts, where most clones went the way of the dodo.

The problem? Turns out, cloned embryos often have placentas much more unstable than those grown in a lab.

The researchers fixed this by using a new trick where they swapped the placenta-making cells of the cloned embryo with ones from a normal one. This worked a treat, and Retro was born a healthy two-year-old.

Scientists are hoping this new wrinkle will let them create identical rhesus monkeys for medical research. These monkeys are like distant cousins of ours, sharing a fair bit of our DNA, making them ideal for studying all sorts of diseases, from Parkinson’s to Alzheimer’s to the big C. Having genetically identical monkeys would also let researchers test drugs and treatments in a more controlled manner.

But despite the potential for good, there’s some concerns surrounding this whole monkey business. Some experts reckon the low success rate means loads of poor monkeys will suffer before a healthy one pops out. And then there’s the whole human cloning thing, which, although the scientists and most of the brainiacs say it’s a no-go, still has some folks worried sick.

So, while Retro’s arrival is a splendid achievement, there’s still a right old balancing act to be done between the potential benefits and the ethical worries.