Gordon Woods, a former University of Idaho veterinary scientist who helped create the world’s first cloned mule, has died. He was 57.Woods passed away unexpectedly Thurday according to Dell Rae Moellenberg, a spokeswoman at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, where Wood was a professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.In Idaho, Woods worked with Dirk Vanderwall on the mule-cloning project at the University of Idaho. In 2003 Woods, Vanderwall and Kenneth White of Utah State University led a team that cloned Idaho Gem as part of a larger project intended to better understand human diseases.The mule clone, one of three produced by the three scientists, went on to success on the mule racing circuit in Nevada and California.