Posted on 01/24/2008 12:21:50 PM PST by Jeff Gordon
US 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
It is ... but realize, it's still just the equivalent of inventing a language that nobody can speak yet. It's a long way from there, to having it express any physical meaning.
Oh, no ... didn't you get the memo? Intelligent design isn't science.
It’s yet to be biogenesis though, as then we’d also know what’s on the other side.
Are you sure that’s not a man?
How so? Seems to me that this technological achievement suggests the sort of "programming" that God might well engage in.... It would be more likely to move Him out of the gaps and into the main body of the code.
Looks like this is "old news"!
The new bacteria will therefore be largely artificial, though not entirely, because it is composed of building blocks from already existing organisms.
Oh, so the headline should read:
US scientists not close to creating artificial life
Have they created their own dirt out of nothing yet?
“Those who are put their God in the gaps are finding their God growing smaller.”
I’m sorry, but this is just an incredibly ignorant statement — as is the entire notion of “God of the Gaps.”
Albert Einstein said, “We still do not know one-thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us.”
Calling our ignorance of nature “gaps” in our knowledge is like calling the outdoors “gaps” between our buildings.
Do you realize that we do not even have a basic understanding of how our brains add 5 + 7? Yes, we can view brain “activity,” on a machine but that is a far cry from understanding in any kind of detail how our brains actually work. So how far do you suppose we are from understanding how our brains do higher math or philosophy? Or “science,” for crying out loud.
The other obvious point here is that constructing DNA is far, far from constructing an actual living cell. DNA contains the “instructions” for life, but it is not life itself any more than the plans for an airplane are the airplane itself. As far as I know, DNA cannot reproduce unless it is embedded within a cell.
DNA research in the lab starts with getting a DNA sample to reproduce itself tens of thousands of times ... outside of a cell.
If that’s true, it fills a “gap” in my knowledge. But I have no doubt that plenty remain!
The law of unintended consequences will soon rear its ugly head.
Real life. Accept no substitutes.
Well... ‘biogenesis’ is nothing more than a lifeform producing another lifeform. As in, say a chicken laying an egg, that then produces a chicken.
Reproduction is the correct term in this case to (help) identify life forms.
This doesn’t disprove god, to the contrary. This actually gives good evidence that god exists.
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