Scientists create Artificial Life

CptStern

CptStern

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Scientists in the US have succeeded in developing the first synthetic living cell.

The researchers constructed a bacterium's "genetic software" and transplanted it into a host cell.

The resulting microbe then looked and behaved like the species "dictated" by the synthetic DNA.

The advance, published in Science, has been hailed as a scientific landmark, but critics say there are dangers posed by synthetic organisms.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science_and_environment/10132762.stm
 
It's pretty cool, but like most of (that bastard) Ventner's stuff more of a publicity stunt than having big implications for science.
 
There are no dangers posed by organic synthesis; only tasty, tasty mistakes.
 
Cool.

I'm not sure what other applications other than making horrible, horrible biological weapons this technology has.
 
If the resulting microbes get dictated by the synthetic DNA, that can't be good right?
Isn't that like throwing millions of years of evolution out of the window and replacing it with what of a few (if i have to believe Eejit) bastards in a lab think a cell should do?

edit: lol at bishop :D
 
15357 said:
Cool.

I'm not sure what other applications other than making horrible, horrible biological weapons this technology has.
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They say "If we can really get cells to do the production that we want, they could help wean us off oil and reverse some of the damage to the environment by capturing carbon dioxide." but also "These could be used in the future to make the most powerful bioweapons imaginable. The challenge is to eat the fruit without the worm."
 
It's not that big a deal. The 'synthetic DNA' is all based on naturally occurring genes, it's just been synthesized chemically rather than naturally and in an order, layout and combination as decided by the scientists.
 
This was an invention made by nurizeko so that everyone will have girlfriends.
 
ZT said:
This was an invention made by nurizeko so that everyone will have girlfriends.
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hot564231 said:
or life like sex toys.
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Sorry, hotnumbers, you just pulled a Ted Turner (i.e., Family Guy). Yes, that was the point, ZT wasn't implying that these synthetic life forms would be used to get angry at you for forgetting their anniversary.
 
Nah I mean it'll have no head with rubber arms and two of the essential holes working in a life-like manner.

Oh how a boy can dream...


Seal_683835a.jpg
 
"we prefer the term artificial person"
Bishop.gif



(I dont care if it wasnt a cool post,is the first thing that come to my mind)
 
I dont know about you

but in all seriousness

we are ****ing screwed
 
It's a bit like the moon landings for biology. Big moment with lots of fuss and attention but when you get right down to it not a huge advance for science and not telling us much we didn't know and not letting us do much we couldn't before.
A decorative milestone.
 
Except that we brought back literally tons of moon rock (that 40 years later, we found new things in), found out that the dust on the surface of the moon causes respiratory problems and must be filtered on any type of moon based habitat, etc.
 
Oh shit my analogy wasn't perfect. It remains a 'ceremonial breakthrough'.
 
Oh look everyone, Eejit's a moon scientist. Who would have guessed?

Sometimes these projects have little or nothing to do with the Public good. Like Fruit Fly research *scoff* in Paris, France.
-I kid you not!

Right Eejit? RIGHT?
 
Eejit said:
Oh shit my analogy wasn't perfect. It remains a 'ceremonial breakthrough'.
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"We are no longer just creatures of Earth, but creatures of the Solar System as well."


What. I just wanted to quote that.
 
toaster leigh said:
edit: also I think the moon analogy works pretty well because I mean sure these things have their potential applications for some point in the future but, just like we still don't have a ****ing moon base, we're not going to be making completely artificial organs anytime soon either
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Oh look! Eejit and Toaster are colleagues!

That's amazing, see I had no idea WE NEEDED A MOON BASE RIGHT NOW, but since you guys both took 8 years of Moonology at State University of Planetary Science in Scotland, YOU TWO MUST KNOW DAMN NEAR EVERYTHING ABOUT SCIENCE.
 
Viperidae said:
Can't we just talk about female robots?

10e07jb.gif


Yeaaah.
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I like the original Starcraft because she didn't seem to be a robot, and I imagined a poor female person who was grafted with cybernetics and placed as the CPU core of ships and buildings for her entire life by some evil sick perverted scientist.
 
We're working on the missiles. They fire great, but there's some strange, blinding, loud beeping light that seems to be crucial to the design. The ordnance has not yet passed industry beinglostable standards.
 
Hey guys I'm Eejit and I make people feel stupid for accomplishing really cool shit.
 
Give it a few years when someone masters the entire copy paste function on a computer and 6 days later prints out a newer longer 20 inch penis
 
You make less sense every day.

Warped, 20 years later:

i ald fjvlie pnesis bigness sex fiel a poop
 
15357 said:
Cool.

I'm not sure what other applications other than making horrible, horrible biological weapons this technology has.
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What are you talking about?

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THERE'S NO END TO THE POSSIBILITES!
 
Oh as for applications for genetic engineering of bacteria (and other organisms too) they include
  • bioremediation - cleaning up pollutants of various types including toxic metals, herbicides, pesticides, explosives residues
  • pharming - already been going on for ages, you engineer bugs to produce drugs
  • bioplastics - using genetically engineered organisms to create plastics without needing fossil fuels
  • biofuels - creating alternative fuel sources such as ethanol
  • industrial enzyme production - giving you enzymes to be used as catalysts or as a replacement for caustic chemicals in a huge range of industrial processes
  • biosensors - engineering cells to detect particular chemicals and give a readout, is starting to be used to detect pollutants in the environment

There's a few of the important ones to start you off.

Now this 'breakthrough' doesn't particularly help with these processes for decades at least, but they're what it's intended to eventually be used for.
 
Ok, it's more useful than I'd have imagined. Heh.

Hoping all these get developed soon enough, I've been waiting for cold fusion for a decade now. :p

Btw, I kinda don't like the idea of an artificial self-replicating thing, but maybe I'm being paranoid.
 
It's not really that artificial though. They just used an old process of creating pieces of DNA chemically (rather than biologically) but on a larger scale, then stuck those pieces (which are pretty much copied exactly from a 'wild' bacteria) into a cell.
 
Vatican said:
"Pretending to be God and parroting his power of creation is an enormous risk that can plunge men into a barbarity," Mogavero told newspaper La Stampa in an interview. Scientists "should never forget that there is only one creator: God."
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Why I'm not surprised...
 
Eejit said:
Hey it's Ventner. He's an amoral media whore.
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I don't really feel like looking into what this post means so intead I'm just going to say you're really mean and all I want in life is your approval oh god why can't you just say you love me.
 
Sheepo said:
I don't really feel like looking into what this post means so intead I'm just going to say you're really mean and all I want in life is your approval oh god why can't you just say you love me.
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Dr Craig Ventner is a bit of an asshole.
He was racing the publicly-funded researchers during the Human Genome Project and trying to patent genes for his company as he went along, while they were releasing each section of the genome to the public as they were sequenced as they went along in order to stop him.

He also likes making big flashy 'developments' in science which aren't actually revolutionary so much as being an impressive technical feat but look impressive to the media and public I love you, so basically he's an asshole.
 
I was going to post about how I didn't think this really constituted 'artificial life' but then I realised I wasn't sure how to even define life. Raises a lot of interesting philosophical ideas.
 
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