Often left out of news reports of cloned animals is the fact that for every 100 attempts, just two or three live offspring typically result. Now many researchers are going back to the lab to attempt to find out why. They are probing fundamental questions of cell biology, as well as trying to figure out whether there is something inherently flawed in "asexual" reproduction in mammals, or whether some problem lies in the in vitro component of the process. For now, the serious obstacles suggest that human cloning may be a long way off.