Posted on 09/10/2006 5:38:02 AM PDT by voletti
At the moment, what passes for genetic engineering is mere pottering. It means moving genes one at a time from species to species so that bacteria can produce human proteins that are useful as drugs, and crops can produce bacterial proteins that are useful as insecticides. True engineering would involve more radical redesigns. But the Carlson curve (Dr Carlson disavows the name, but that may not stop it from sticking) is making that possible.
In the short run such engineering means assembling genes from different organisms to create new metabolic pathways or even new organisms. In the long run it might involve re-writing the genetic code altogether, to create things that are beyond the range of existing biology. These are enterprises far more worthy of the name of genetic engineering than today's tinkering. But since that name is taken, the field's pioneers have had to come up with a new one. They have dubbed their fledgling discipline “synthetic biology”. Truly intelligent design
One of synthetic biology's most radical spirits is Drew Endy. Dr Endy, who works at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, came to the subject from engineering, not biology. As an engineer, he can recognise a kludge when he sees one. And life, in his opinion, is a kludge.
(Excerpt) Read more at economist.com ...
It wasn't. No competent geologist/geophysicist will differ with you.
It would work ig all the water in the oceans rose up and covered the land.
Of couse that miracle still managed not to leave any evidence on the surface of the land.
As Coyote says, the most convincing lack of evidence is not in the rocks, but in the soils.
Yes, and if it didn't immediately run downhill back into the ocean beds.
Miracles are miracles. My problem is with people who lie about evidence and who make silly statements about how the natural world works. AIG comes to mind.
Read-later-ping
All it takes is for the tide to keep coming in without ever going out.
Lunar lock placemark
There's a science fiction novel about a double-planet system where that routinely happens. Robert Forward's Rocheworld.
Rocheworld placemarker.
My non-scientist
thoughts are that if Pangia
was still together
in Noah's time then
it's easier to picture
a flood affecting
the entire world and
the subsequent moves apart
(in Peleg's life time?)
would have confounded
the "record" of the flood with
the breakup record.
If you are interested in this you should study geology.
Learning how the evidence is gathered and analyzed takes time and effort, but it's worth it.
Until proven otherwise. I have very few doubts that one day (relatively soon) someone will synthesize something that can be called alive in the lab.
Did I mention that this fabulous biodroid race is much more flexible when it comes to their environment? Just you wait until the Supernazis under Doktor Totenkopf come back from the dark side of the moon and their lairs in antarctica and the hollow earth.
bump.
A good example of order arising from disorder is a hurricane. You start with a few random updrafts and convective cells off the coast of Africa, next thing you know there is rotation and sustained winds.
Perhaps you will bless us with an example of a living thing that actually resembles a manufactured thing in materials and workmanship. Or vice-versa.
The last time I looked, manufactured things did not assemble themselves or reproduce themselves with variation and negative feedback.
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