Boston, Massachusetts, Tuesday…

"Good for her. So, give already. What's the scoop on our John Doe?"

Ka Wah spread his hands as if preparing papers on a university lectern.

"Well, first of all, your visitor's friends confiscated all the DNA evidence, did you know that?"

"No, I didn't. Why would they do that? Just because he looked a little like a young Frank Sweeney?"

"Ah, you will understand better when I tell you the off-the-record story. Do you know anything about telomeres, Chris?"

"Telo-whats?"

"Telomeres. They're at the end of DNA strands. A DNA molecule of a typical chromosome contains a linear array of genes, encoding proteins and RNA, interspersed with much noncoding DNA. Included in the noncoding DNA are long stretches that make up the centromere and long stretches at the end, the telomeres. These are crucial to the life of the cell since they keep the ends of the various chromosomes in the cell from accidentally becoming attached to each other."

"OK, I think I understand that. But what's it got to do with our John Doe."

"Patience, young friend. The first clone was a sheep named Dolly. Analysis of telomere length in Dolly's cells revealed that they were only eighty per cent as long as those of a normal one-year-old sheep. Shortly after making Dolly it was discovered that this need not always be true. On the contrary, it was found that clones could have even longer DNA tips, or telomeres, than the original cells, and also show other signs of youthfulness." Ka Wah cleared his throat and smiled at Chris. "However, we now know that what often happens in the cloning process, although it's unpredictable, is that sometimes there is telomeric cleavage, i.e. the tips are broken off, if you will. It is also sometimes seen with transplant patients and leads to transplant rejection."