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First synthetic virus created
BBC ^ | July 11, 2000 | Dr David Whitehouse

Posted on 07/11/2002 6:13:12 PM PDT by Nebullis

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To: Nebullis
Only GOD can create something from nothing. Men just borrow GOD's creation.
61 posted on 07/12/2002 12:02:23 AM PDT by seeker41
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To: MHGinTN
God cautioned him to 'drop the clay and get his own dirt.'

Good point. Man can take that which God has created and goof with it this way and that way to make something new but the components are from God. Therefore, man creates nothing, he can only transform what is already here (whether or not what he starts with has been transformed when he/she gets it).
62 posted on 07/12/2002 12:24:38 AM PDT by jwh_Denver
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To: Nebullis
The US researchers built the infectious agent from scratch using the genome sequence for polio.

Aren't we clever. I wonder how many students from islamic fundamentalist countries we are training in this sort of technology ?
63 posted on 07/12/2002 12:25:59 AM PDT by pyx
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To: Redcloak
Tailor made viruses could lead, for example, to quickly developed tailor made antibodies to fight them.

How about -- getting even more science-fictionish -- anti-virus viruses? Trouble with antibodies is you have to inject them into the recipient, they won't just go and do their work if sprayed into the air. Creating an anti-germ to fight the germ would get around that problem.

64 posted on 07/12/2002 12:47:03 AM PDT by drlevy88
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To: Nebullis
Man, sure is a good thing Ted Kaczynski is off that circuit.
65 posted on 07/12/2002 1:09:42 AM PDT by LanaTurnerOverdrive
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To: *crevo_list; PatrickHenry; jennyp; Junior; longshadow; JediGirl; ThinkPlease; Stultis; Physicist; ..
We just made polio (just what I wanted) bump.
66 posted on 07/12/2002 5:33:23 AM PDT by VadeRetro
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To: aruanan
More like three times: Mycoplasma genitalium, complete genome, 580,074 bp versus Variola virus, 185,578 bp. Even the smallest are friggin huge.

Thanks. I think you get my drift. It's the same order of magnitude. There are people (e.g. Clyde Hutchinson) working on the Mycoplasma already and have wittled the number of essential genes from 500 down to 200.

67 posted on 07/12/2002 5:45:42 AM PDT by Nebullis
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To: seeker41
Only GOD can create something from nothing. Men just borrow GOD's creation.

The argument used to be that you can't create life from non-life...

68 posted on 07/12/2002 5:48:55 AM PDT by Nebullis
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To: Have Ruck - Will Travel
Okay, so why is it that statement doesn't exactly give me that "warm and fuzzy" feeling inside?

Probably because it's not someone saying that some god is doing it her/himself and that we should just leave it up to him/her.

69 posted on 07/12/2002 5:54:22 AM PDT by JediGirl
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To: Nebullis
The argument used to be that you can't create life from non-life...

The idea that life has been created from non-life boggles my mind, if no one else's. I'm not certain what to make of it other than it must at least suggest we ought to step back and consider the effect on basic beliefs.

70 posted on 07/12/2002 6:00:39 AM PDT by RJCogburn
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To: Pyro7480
BUT this technology should be very closely monitored before evil forces get a hold of it.

Do not worry, it is in good hands. Such research is funded by the Pentagon not by the terrorists. It means that the defence and security budget needs to be increased to be ahead of potential enemies. And Iraq should be attacked soo before it is too late!

71 posted on 07/12/2002 7:06:58 AM PDT by A. Pole
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To: Nebullis
The argument used to be that you can't create life from non-life...

From the Reuters article on the same subject:

Eckard Wimmer, who led the study, denies that he has created life.

"No, I would not say I created life in a test tube," Wimmer said in a telephone interview. "We created a chemical in a test tube that, when put into cells, begins to behave a little bit like something alive. Some people say viruses are chemicals and I belong to that group."

Wimmer said once the right genetic parts were in place, the virus virtually self-assembled in a lab dish.

Polio virus does not have DNA like many organisms, but starts out with RNA, which is the working version of DNA. DNA carries the genetic code in cells, and is transcribed into RNA, which controls the production of individual proteins.

To make a virus, Wimmer and colleagues Jeronimo Cello and Aniko Paul had to first take a step backward.

"You cannot synthesize RNA," Wimmer said. "So we converted the sequence from RNA into DNA. And DNA you can synthesize. Then we had to go back to RNA. That was very simple -- by using an enzyme which can read DNA and synthesize RNA, called a transcriptase," he added.

Now you have the RNA. That RNA we put into a cell-free juice that we developed in 1991 ... and lo and behold out came the virus. It built itself."

"cell-free juice" is made by taking the virus's favorite home -- a human cell -- shredding it up and removing the big pieces such as the nucleus.

72 posted on 07/12/2002 7:15:29 AM PDT by forsnax5
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To: El Sordo
Why does this not brighten my day.....

While it is indeed a cause for concern, it's not all bad. If scientists can make virii in the lab, that means they can engineer new virii. That can lead to new and more powerful cures to current diseases -- perhaps a virus that attacks only cancerous cells? Or a virus that attacks the smallpox virus? Think of the possibilities that this opens up.
73 posted on 07/12/2002 7:22:01 AM PDT by WindMinstrel
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To: VadeRetro
Thanks for the ping.
74 posted on 07/12/2002 7:42:04 AM PDT by PatrickHenry
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To: JediGirl
Probably because it's not someone saying that some god is doing it her/himself and that we should just leave it up to him/her.

Actually no. I just worry about the morals of the men/women who have the ability to do this. Not from a religious standpoint, more from the worry of them selling out to the highest bidder.

The religious issues are another subject altogether.

Ruck

75 posted on 07/12/2002 7:43:32 AM PDT by Have Ruck - Will Travel
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To: Nebullis
There are people (e.g. Clyde Hutchinson) working on the Mycoplasma already and have wittled the number of essential genes from 500 down to 200.

They've left off the pinstriping and rust undercoating options?
76 posted on 07/12/2002 7:45:24 AM PDT by aruanan
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To: forsnax5
Wimmer said once the right genetic parts were in place, the virus virtually self-assembled in a lab dish.

That's not supposed to happen according to some people.

77 posted on 07/12/2002 7:47:38 AM PDT by VadeRetro
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To: Pyro7480
Perhaps I was also a bit too extreme when I said the technology should be destroyed, BUT this technology should be very closely monitored before evil forces get a hold of it.

But we can't control what the bad guys do. They won't refrain from doing developing these techniques simply because we fancy ourselves "too ethical" to perform such research. No matter what we do, evil people will acquire this ability someday.

The only possible way to prevail is for us to stay one or more steps ahead of them. That means pushing as far as possible, as fast as possible, on all fronts. Once we fall behind, we are lost.

78 posted on 07/12/2002 8:12:25 AM PDT by Physicist
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To: Mo1
Are we are suppose to be happy about this because ...... ????

...because it was done here first, when it might have happened in Baghdad, Tehran, Beijing or Pyongyang.

79 posted on 07/12/2002 8:16:27 AM PDT by Physicist
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To: VadeRetro
... and lo and behold out came the virus. It built itself.

This is the quote that struck me. It sounds like they didn't expect it to happen, either.

80 posted on 07/12/2002 8:38:13 AM PDT by forsnax5
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