Access

Published online 21 May 2002 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news020520-1

News

Physics bans cloning

It is impossible to make an exact copy of any object, living or not.

Perfect clones can't exist, say physicists. They're not doing down the hottest topic in biology, merely pointing out that the laws of classical physics forbid making an exact copy of an object, living or inanimate, just as the laws of quantum physics have been known to do for 20 years.

Comments

Reader comments are usually moderated after posting. If you find something offensive or inappropriate, you can speed this process by clicking 'Report this comment' (or, if that doesn't work for you, email webadmin@nature.com). For more controversial topics, we reserve the right to moderate before comments are published.

There are currently no comments.