The citation for his knighthood credits Prof Wilmut with "revolutionising" biology through the cloning technique which underpins the science of stem cell technology.

BBC: Dolly the sheep creator knighted

The new study involves something similar to the cloning technique that led to the birth of Dolly, the famous cloned sheep that was born in July 1996.

CNN: Cloning stem cells: What does it mean?

The best-known of the new knights is Professor Wilmut, who is said to have revolutionised biology by successfully pioneering the cloning technique that underpins the science of stem cell technology.

BBC: Dolly creator heads Scots honours

The two used a new technique called expression cloning to fish out the TNF receptor in a mere three months.

FORBES: The Maverick and the Maestro

ACT's success with a technique known as interspecies cloning.

ECONOMIST: New kid on the block

However, the technique is so close to the "cloning" technology used to create Dolly the sheep that it will raise difficult ethical questions for doctors.

BBC: Gene technology

Other cloning attempts have ended in malformed animals and experts say the technique fails in 97 percent of cases.

CNN: Team to attempt human cloning

Last month, Prof Wilmut announced that he was abandoning the cloning of human embryos in stem cell research in favour of a new technique developed in Japan.

BBC: Dolly the sheep creator knighted

The Roslin Institute's Dr. Ian Wilmut, who pioneered the technique that cloned Dolly from a single mammary cell from an adult sheep, said that while human cloning is theoretically possible, he saw no reason to do so.

CNN: Oppose experiments on humans