Contributors: Mar. 10, 1997

PHILIP ELMER-DEWITT, TIME's science editor, knows firsthand how quickly technology can race ahead of those who think or write about it. While putting together the package of stories for this week's special report on the first cloning of an adult mammal, he was reminded that just four years ago, in another TIME cover story--one he wrote--we said the possibility of replicating an animal from the dna of fully developed cells is "far beyond the reach of today's science." The next technological step, he notes, might not be too far off. "Suddenly the possibility of cloning a new human from a dictator's...