TheCapedPillager on 20/5/2010 at 20:59
Geneticist Craig Venter and his team has created a purely (
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/may/20/craig-venter-synthetic-life-form) synthetic lifeform for the first time, based on existing genetic code but using a process that creates the genetic material from chemicals in the lab.
The process sounds quite painstaking, they had to join together chunks of 20 'letters' into a DNA sequence of over 1 million base pairs, so it will be a while before we see the likes of 'The Many' being unleashed upon the Earth. Still, give it time.
SubJeff on 20/5/2010 at 21:35
Dammnit! I was born 50 years too early! All the awesome technology is still yet to come.
demagogue on 20/5/2010 at 22:51
Quote:
"We were ecstatic when the cells booted up with all the watermarks in place," Dr Venter told the Guardian.
It may be just me, but the sound of life "booting up" sounds a little disconcerting. I'm all for advances that improve people's lives and the earth and our understanding and all that, but I hope people still have a healthy respect for how life works no matter how its made ... I mean especially once we get into the territory of higher animals, e.g., I don't think it's going to be any less wrong to abuse an animal just because it's synthetic, and the packaging of this trend (though I see what he's trying to do) would be better if it didn't give people an excuse to get that in their heads early on, IMO.
All that said, I've been following Venter's work ever since I saw him give testimony at a Congressional hearing back in 1997 on the human genome project, and was especially interested in his trans-world voyage to document the genomes of a countless species of sea gunk, and am optimistic about the great things in store (as long as they're applied thoughtfully and the reactive crowd on either side doesn't muck it up).
SubJeff on 20/5/2010 at 23:10
Ack, these people and those that follow will get over the "booting up" terminology. When complex organisms are created, and it's going to happen, they'll come up with something else. "Sparking" it, or "birthing" it or something.
And if no one ever says "I command you to RIIIISE!" or "LIVE, my child!" at these events we should seriously think about nuking everything from orbit because, you know, that'd just be boro-fail.
demagogue on 20/5/2010 at 23:36
Quote:
Short for Middlesbrough - a town in the North East of England, home to a superb football team and some nice areas like Yarm, Eaglescliffe and Nunthorpe. The rest is a fucking shithole full of illegal immigrants, yardie gangs, crackhouses, litter, and fat single mothers of 15 living off benefits that should all be nuked to make way for my BMW.
... I guess you mean.
Mr.Duck on 20/5/2010 at 23:38
*Has never fully understood the concepts of "playing to be God" or somesuch*
They're just mixing and matching what's already there and came up with something new.
Doesn't seem godly to me, simply people fiddling (in an awesome way, mind you) with the building blocks of life that were already there (or the universe, depends the area of research).
Still, awesome thing, w00t!
:)
TheCapedPillager on 20/5/2010 at 23:54
I think the most interesting thing about all this is that it makes us question our fundamental understanding of what life is. Although the genetic code in this case was mostly pre-existing from organic life, what if the next example of synthetic life is written from scratch, is it still life? Can it be patented as IP (it can) and what kind of rights would a life-form created in this way have?
You could almost imagine a dystopian future of mega corporations, each with their own patented humanoid creations as slaves to the corporation, owned by the corporation down to their very genes.
I would liken this advancement to the splitting of the atom, where the science provided you with the ability to destroy on a huge scale or to help mankind with seemingly unlimited energy. Same thing here, lots of negative potential, but also lots of ways to help mankind (such as the replacement fuel scenario).
While it's exciting to think of some of the inevitable achievements we'll see in the coming years, I'd be sorely disappointed if in a few years time we don't see hybrid animals with four asses.
Nicker on 21/5/2010 at 00:01
Seems that those who complain the loudest about scientists playing god are only doing so because of the new competition.
frozenman on 21/5/2010 at 03:03
Quote Posted by MrDuck
They're just mixing and matching what's already there and came up with something new.
REMIX
Tocky on 21/5/2010 at 03:44
Quote Posted by Subjective Effect
And if no one ever says "I command you to RIIIISE!" or "LIVE, my child!" at these events we should seriously think about nuking everything from orbit because, you know, that'd just be boro-fail.
Dr. Frankenstein comes to mind. So does the well intentioned planting of kudzu. I'm excited but in an andromeda strain kind of way. I hope they fully understand all the functions of those pairings. Science is great but knowing who to email and complain about the new life form taking over doesn't comfort me much.
On the other hand, designing a lifeform capable of teraforming Mars is exciting.
