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UK Scientist Who Created Dolly the Sheep Clone Dies at 79

FILE - Scottish scientist Ian Wilmut is seen in the Pauls Church in Frankfurt, central Germany, Monday, March 14, 2005. Ian Wilmut, the cloning pioneer whose research was critical to the creation of Dolly the Sheep, has died, the Roslin Institute at the University of Edinburgh said Monday. He was 79. (AP Photo/Michael Probst, File)
FILE - Scottish scientist Ian Wilmut is seen in the Pauls Church in Frankfurt, central Germany, Monday, March 14, 2005. Ian Wilmut, the cloning pioneer whose research was critical to the creation of Dolly the Sheep, has died, the Roslin Institute at the University of Edinburgh said Monday. He was 79. (AP Photo/Michael Probst, File)
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UK Scientist Who Created Dolly the Sheep Clone Dies at 79

FILE - Scottish scientist Ian Wilmut is seen in the Pauls Church in Frankfurt, central Germany, Monday, March 14, 2005. Ian Wilmut, the cloning pioneer whose research was critical to the creation of Dolly the Sheep, has died, the Roslin Institute at the University of Edinburgh said Monday. He was 79. (AP Photo/Michael Probst, File)
FILE - Scottish scientist Ian Wilmut is seen in the Pauls Church in Frankfurt, central Germany, Monday, March 14, 2005. Ian Wilmut, the cloning pioneer whose research was critical to the creation of Dolly the Sheep, has died, the Roslin Institute at the University of Edinburgh said Monday. He was 79. (AP Photo/Michael Probst, File)

British scientist Ian Wilmut, whose research was central to the creation of the cloned animal, Dolly the Sheep, has died at the age of 79, the University of Edinburgh said on Monday.
His death on Sunday years after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, was announced by the University of Edinburgh, where he worked, Reuters said.
Wilmut, along with Keith Campbell from the animal sciences research institute in Scotland, generated news headlines and heated ethical debates in 1996 when they created Dolly, the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell.
"He led efforts to develop cloning, or nuclear transfer, techniques that could be used to make genetically modified sheep. It was these efforts which led to the births of Megan and Morag in 1995 and Dolly in 1996," the university said in a statement.
Dolly, named after country singer Dolly Parton, was the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell, using a process called somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT).
This involved taking a sheep egg, removing its DNA and replacing it with DNA from a frozen udder cell of a sheep that died years before. The egg was then zapped with electricity to make it grow like a fertilized embryo. No sperm were involved.
Dolly’s creation triggered fears of human reproductive cloning, or producing genetic copies of living or dead people, but mainstream scientists have ruled this out as far too dangerous.
Wilmut, who was born near Stratford-upon-Avon, attended the University of Nottingham, initially to study agriculture, before switching to animal science.
He moved to the University of Edinburgh in 2005, received a knighthood in 2008 and retired from the university in 2012.

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Japan's 400,000-follower 'Insta-gran' Dies Aged 97

(FILES) This file picture taken on January 16, 2018 shows Kimiko Nishimoto posing next to a picture of her on the sliding window of her house in the western Japanese city of Kumamoto. (Photo by Behrouz MEHRI / AFP)
(FILES) This file picture taken on January 16, 2018 shows Kimiko Nishimoto posing next to a picture of her on the sliding window of her house in the western Japanese city of Kumamoto. (Photo by Behrouz MEHRI / AFP)
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Japan's 400,000-follower 'Insta-gran' Dies Aged 97

(FILES) This file picture taken on January 16, 2018 shows Kimiko Nishimoto posing next to a picture of her on the sliding window of her house in the western Japanese city of Kumamoto. (Photo by Behrouz MEHRI / AFP)
(FILES) This file picture taken on January 16, 2018 shows Kimiko Nishimoto posing next to a picture of her on the sliding window of her house in the western Japanese city of Kumamoto. (Photo by Behrouz MEHRI / AFP)

A Japanese great-grandmother with 400,000 Instagram followers who shot to fame for her goofy self-portraits after taking up photography aged 72 has died, her son said on Thursday.

Kimiko Nishimoto, who died this week at the age of 97, told AFP in a 2018 interview that "you can take photos no matter how old you get".

"Wherever it is, in your house, outside, or in your bed, you can do it. That is the nice thing about a camera," she said.

Dubbed the "selfie queen" by Japanese media, Nishimoto's posts showed her in various candid poses -- from riding a broom like Harry Potter to imitating an off-duty sumo wrestler on their fifth beer of the night.

"Our mother always created her work with a smile," a post from her son Kazutami Nishimoto said on her Instagram account.

"We are deeply grateful to everyone who visited her photography exhibitions held across the country, to those who shared warm words of encouragement through Instagram... and to all who supported her warmly throughout her journey."

Nishimoto's son teaches photography classes, which his mother started taking in retirement.

"Though she began photography at the age of 72, she was blessed with countless encounters, which enriched this third chapter of her life tremendously," he said.

Nishimoto appeared on national television as her online following grew and was interviewed by major news outlets.

But her more out-there visual scenarios were also the cause of some confusion over the years.

One snap -- showing her wrapped in a garbage bag, as if she had been discarded -- drew criticism from people who didn't know she was involved in its set-up.

"It's not like ideas just suddenly pop into my head but wherever I go I think about what it would be fun to dress up as in that place," she said in 2018.