Artificial life created

[Haunted]

Yes I realise I'm posting a link to a news website (at least it's not the BBC) but this is big.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/ ... matechange

Nobel prize right there.


[hr]

Now with 100% more corn

[MaverickMenzies]

I'd wait for independent confirmation before getting too excited. Have they published their results in a scientific paper?

If its true, then its awesome.

[Frank]

Nobel Prize? Does this really come under Physiology or Medicine?

I was always under the impression that stuff like this just wouldn't get a Nobel Prize as it wasn't strictly medicine or physiology.

By the sounds of the description, is this about accurate?

Craig 'Davros' Venter has:
- created some artificial life (the chromosome)
- put it in an armoured battle shell (the cell)

Pretty neat though if he's done it.

[hr]

"There is only ever one truth. Things are always black or white, there's no such thing as a shade of grey. If you think that something is a shade of grey it simply means that you don't fully understand the situation. The truth is narrow and the path of the pursuit of truth is similarly narrow."

[Power Metal Dom]

Synthetic life is something that was bound to happen (like extraterrestrial life?) and only a matter of time before human's acheiveved such a feat. I am extremely excited if this turns out to be such a feat.

Does it count though? Does artificial DNA in a pre-existing natural cell count as man-made life? I would have thought a synthetic shell with 100% synthetic genetic material would count as a synthetic single celled life form?

But I'm no scientist so can anyone shed any more light on this?

[hr]

Like flames on fuel...upon metal I drool

[Haunted]

Well using a pre-existing cell to insert the new DNA into is just a nice way of skipping a billion years of evolution.
But yes, we can write new genes now. Programmable life.

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Now with 100% more corn

[Frank]

Quoting Haunted from 14:07, 8th Oct 2007
Well using a pre-existing cell to insert the new DNA into is just a nice way of skipping a billion years of evolution.
But yes, we can write new genes now. Programmable life.

Hip hip, horra----does not compute.

[hr]

"There is only ever one truth. Things are always black or white, there's no such thing as a shade of grey. If you think that something is a shade of grey it simply means that you don't fully understand the situation. The truth is narrow and the path of the pursuit of truth is similarly narrow."