Born on 5 July 1996, Dolly was proof that it’s possible to make a clone from an adult mammal’s cell. As the cell came from another sheep’s mammary gland, it seemed apt to name the clone after someone with a prominent pair, Dolly Parton. Dolly the sheep died after developing arthritis and lung disease thought to be the result of premature ageing, as the “age” of her DNA was effectively twice that of her body Photograph: Murdo Macleod
Using not a real kitty but a hypothetical one, Erwin Schrödinger’s thought experiment was used to illustrate the limitations of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, which states that particles exist in all states at once, until observed. In Schrödinger’s hypothetical situation, a cat sealed inside a box could appear to be both dead and alive at the same time. Photograph: Benjamin Torode/Getty Images/Flickr
Taught sign language from the age of one, Koko, a western lowland gorilla, is now 42 and weighs 140kg. She was schooled by Francine Patterson in California, and apparently has a working vocabulary of about 1,000 signs and understands more than 2,000 words. She hasn’t been without controversy however, as some scientists claim she is simply conditioned like Pavlov’s dogs Photograph: Associated Press
When Jane Goodall arrived in Tanzania in 1960, it was thought that only humans could use tools. “David Greybeard”, and the other chimpanzees in the Kasakela community, turned this on its head, when she saw them stripping leaves from twigs and using them to fish for termites. She also witnessed for the first time chimpanzees eating meat, dispelling the idea that they were peaceful vegetarians
Photograph: CSU Archives/Rex
Selected by the United States Air Force to participate in its “school for space chimps” at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, Ham beat 40 other chimpanzees in Project Mercury to become the first ape to be sent into space. On 31 January 1961, Ham (an acronym of Holloman Aerospace Medical centre) took off from Cape Canaveral, broke free of the Earth’s atmosphere and reached an altitude of 157 miles (253 km) during a voyage that lasted 16 minutes and 39 seconds. Trained to sit strapped into a seat and pull levers when a blue light appeared, Ham’s suborbital flight occurred 10 weeks before Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to enter space. His mission directly paved the path for the American Alan Shepard to do the same on 5 May 1961. Ham died in 1983 and his remains are buried in the International Space Hall in New Mexico Photograph: Nasa
While studying how the digestive system works Ivan Pavlov noticed that even before his canine subjects were fed, they started salivating. Realising they associated his assistants’ white lab coats with food, he showed how a dog can be conditioned to salivate by the sound of a bell. His discovery revealed how an entirely unrelated environmental stimulus can, through conditioning and experience, elicit a reflex Photograph: Bettmann/Corbis
Bought from a pet shop, Alex the parrot was the subject of a 30-year experiment by psychologist Irene Pepperberg, who demonstrated that language, communication and intelligence are not just the result of a large primate brain; “lesser” animals also possess high cognitive ability. Alex could count, knew more than 100 words and even understood syntax. When he died, his last words to Pepperberg were: “You be good, see you tomorrow. I love you” Photograph: New York Times / Redux / eyevine
Even with the help from his friend and ornithologist John Gould, Charles Darwin never twigged how the birds he’d collected in the Galápagos fitted into his theories of evolution. They get no mention in On The Origin Of Species, are not actually finches, and were never known as “Darwin’s finches” until 1936. However, this doesn’t stop them from being a perfect example of Darwin’s theory in practice, even if the great man himself never realised it Photograph: Print Collector/Getty Images
In December 1938, Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, curator of a tiny museum in East London, South Africa, discovered a prehistoric fish that was previously thought to have been extinct for at least 70m years. Considered a transitional species between fish and tetrapods, Courtenay-Latimer’s coelacanth is often cited as the most important zoological find of the century; it was as if a living dinosaur had been discovered swimming in the oceans. But it would not be until 1952 that Courtenay-Latimer’s friend, James Smith, finally found a second specimen and vital questions about its biology could finally be answered Photograph: the Sunday Times
In 1935 Konrad Lorenz showed that if he were the first “thing” seen when a group of greylag geese hatched, the goslings would regard him as their “mother”. From this he described imprinting, detailing how animals acquire several behavioural characteristics from their parents in the early stages of life. He proved that, while some behaviours are innate, others are learned, leading him to win the Nobel prize in physiology or medicine in 1973, along with two colleagues Photograph: Thomas D. McAvoy/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Image
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