U.S. Scientists Near Creating Artificial Life
Wow, I thought. Just Wow…
It is one of the Holy Grails of science, but also one that stirs deep fears as forseen in Aldous Huxley’s 1932 novel “Brave New World” in which natural human reproduction is eschewed in favor of babies grown artificially in laboratories.
But then I read this in the article…
The bacteria, which causes certain sexually transmitted diseases, has one of the least complex DNA structures of any life form, composed of just 580 genes.
I can see it now…”The Ghonorrhea Swamp Beast That Swallowed Manhattan!”
Excerpt from the article:
U.S. Scientists have taken a major step toward creating the first ever artificial life form by synthetically reproducing the DNA of a bacteria, according to a study published Thursday.
The move, which comes after five years of research, is seen as the penultimate stage in the endeavour to create an artificial life form based entirely on a man-made DNA genome — something which has tantalised scientists and sci-fi writers for years.
“Through dedicated teamwork we have shown that building large genomes is now feasible and scalable so that important applications such as biofuels can be developed,” said Hamilton Smith, from the J. Craig Venter Institute, in the study published in Science.
The research has been carried out at the laboratories of the controversial celebrity US scientist Craig Venter, who has hailed artificial life forms as a potential remedy to illness and global warming.
However, the prospect of engineering artificial life forms is highly controversial and is likely to arouse heated debate over the ethics and potential ramifications of such an advance.
It is one of the Holy Grails of science, but also one that stirs deep fears as forseen in Aldous Huxley’s 1932 novel “Brave New World” in which natural human reproduction is eschewed in favor of babies grown artificially in laboratories.
Venter said in a statement: “This extraordinary accomplishment is a technological marvel that was only made possible because of the unique and accomplished … team.”
His researchers had “dedicated the last several years to designing and perfecting new methods and techniques that we believe will become widely used to advance the field of synthetic genomics,” he added.
Lead author Dan Gibson said the team had completed the second step in a three-step process to create a synthetic organism.
In the final stage of their research which they are already working on, the Maryland-based team will attempt to create a bacteria based purely on the synthetic genome sequence of the Mycoplasma genitalium bacteria.
The bacteria, which causes certain sexually transmitted diseases, has one of the least complex DNA structures of any life form, composed of just 580 genes.
In contrast, the human genome has some 30,000.
(AP)
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…”The Ghonorrhea Swamp Beast That Swallowed Manhattan!”
You’re the man Bash! lol
Scary thought about creating artificial life though.
January 24th, 2008 at 2:44 pmOh, goodie … because the real one just ain’t workin’ out so good.
You know what I find [funny] about this stuff … Many of these same people who support this are the same ones who are against feeding the starving people around the world with disease and pest resistant genetically altered crops, because “we don’t know what effect it might have one those people who have eaten the food, say, 50 yrs. down the road” … So, let them die now from starvation.
Anyway, so now they’ll at least have someone to feed all that genetically altered food to, eh?
January 24th, 2008 at 2:51 pm“Bottle of mine,it’s you I’ve always wanted! Bottle of mine, why was I ever decanted? Skies are blue inside you, The weather’s always fine; For..There ain’t no Bottle in all the world, Like that dear old Bottle of mine.” Oh my Ford!
January 24th, 2008 at 3:03 pmArtificial life? That’s old news, have you forgetton john kerry?
January 24th, 2008 at 3:32 pmhehe, one Lung, is there anymore transparent liquid left in the bottle of yours, cause that might be some nightmare soon ?
January 24th, 2008 at 3:32 pmInteresting
January 24th, 2008 at 6:04 pmVariations on the Human ….
Like this?
January 24th, 2008 at 8:42 pm“Ford, we are twelve; oh, makes us one, Like drops within the Social River; Oh, make us now together run As swiftly as thy shinning Flivver.”
January 25th, 2008 at 9:58 am