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wowcoolman
MysteriousStranger
Registered: 05/09/10
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Scientist Creates First Synthetic Life 1
#12597921 - 05/20/10 12:48 PM (13 years, 10 months ago) |
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Craig Venter and his team have built the genome of a bacterium from scratch and incorporated it into a cell to make what they call the world's first synthetic life form http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/may/20/craig-venter-synthetic-life-form
Quote:
Scientists have created the world's first synthetic life form in a landmark experiment that paves the way for designer organisms that are built rather than evolved. The controversial feat, which has occupied 20 scientists for more than 10 years at an estimated cost of $40m, was described by one researcher as "a defining moment in biology".
Craig Venter, the pioneering US geneticist behind the experiment, said the achievement heralds the dawn of a new era in which new life is made to benefit humanity, starting with bacteria that churn out biofuels, soak up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and even manufacture vaccines. However critics, including some religious groups, condemned the work, with one organisation warning that artificial organisms could escape into the wild and cause environmental havoc or be turned into biological weapons. Others said Venter was playing God.
The new organism is based on an existing bacterium that causes mastitis in goats, but at its core is an entirely synthetic genome that was constructed from chemicals in the laboratory.
The single-celled organism has four "watermarks" written into its DNA to identify it as synthetic and help trace its descendants back to their creator, should they go astray. "We were ecstatic when the cells booted up with all the watermarks in place," Dr Venter told the Guardian.
"It's a living species now, part of our planet's inventory of life."
Dr Venter's team developed a new code based on the four letters of the genetic code, G, T, C and A, that allowed them to draw on the whole alphabet, numbers and punctuation marks to write the watermarks.
Anyone who cracks the code is invited to email an address written into the DNA. The research is reported online today in the journal Science.
"This is an important step both scientifically and philosophically," Dr Venter told the journal.
"It has certainly changed my views of definitions of life and how life works." The team now plans to use the synthetic organism to work out the minimum number of genes needed for life to exist. From this, new microorganisms could be made by bolting on additional genes to produce useful chemicals, break down pollutants, or produce proteins for use in vaccines.
Julian Savulescu, professor of practical ethics at Oxford University, said: "Venter is creaking open the most profound door in humanity's history, potentially peeking into its destiny.
He is not merely copying life artificially ... or modifying it radically by genetic engineering. He is going towards the role of a god: creating artificial life that could never have existed naturally." This is "a defining moment in the history of biology and biotechnology", Mark Bedau, a philosopher at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, told Science.
Dr Venter became a controversial figure in the 1990s when he pitted his former company, Celera Genomics, against the publicly funded effort to sequence the human genome, the Human Genome Project. Venter had already applied for patents on more than 300 genes, raising concerns that the company might claim intellectual rights to the building blocks of life.
-------------------- "F*** visuals we're sinking every last penny into the sound system!" - Amon Tobin
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Troll Bot
Stranger
Registered: 07/25/08
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Re: Scientist Creates First Synthetic Life [Re: wowcoolman]
#12597939 - 05/20/10 12:51 PM (13 years, 10 months ago) |
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Wow!
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UtOpiaN-MiNdStAtEs
Registered: 10/25/09
Posts: 1,820
Loc: place
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Re: Scientist Creates First Synthetic Life [Re: wowcoolman] 1
#12597946 - 05/20/10 12:52 PM (13 years, 10 months ago) |
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this is so the start of the diseases that will wipe out or realy fuck up our time.
-------------------- ]KILLEER TOFFUUUUUU!!!! love life and live loving Wizard of the Night ~Peace Love and Hippy Shit~
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wowcoolman
MysteriousStranger
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says you
-------------------- "F*** visuals we're sinking every last penny into the sound system!" - Amon Tobin
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Olskool420
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Re: Scientist Creates First Synthetic Life [Re: wowcoolman]
#12597968 - 05/20/10 12:56 PM (13 years, 10 months ago) |
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A artificial life form with an email address written into it's DNA?
Jesus facepalming Christ.
-------------------- It is impossible to make people understand their ignorance; for it requires knowledge to perceive it and therefore he that can perceive it hath it not. -Jeremy Taylor The first condition of immortality is death. -Stanislaw J. Lec
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Glenners
Rhymenosaurus
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Re: Scientist Creates First Synthetic Life [Re: Olskool420]
#12597984 - 05/20/10 12:59 PM (13 years, 10 months ago) |
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That's pretty damn cool!
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34120060
Eocene Epoch
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Re: Scientist Creates First Synthetic Life [Re: Glenners]
#12598016 - 05/20/10 01:04 PM (13 years, 10 months ago) |
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this is the most amazing thing i have ever read! cant imagine what this means for future tech advances!
-------------------- "Life is but a momentary glimpse of the wonder of this astonishing universe, and it is sad to see so many dreaming it away on spiritual fantasy" - Carl Sagan
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niteowl
GrandPaw
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Re: Scientist Creates First Synthetic Life [Re: Olskool420]
#12598061 - 05/20/10 01:11 PM (13 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
Olskool420 said: A artificial life form with an email address written into it's DNA?
Jesus facepalming Christ.
Whats wrong with that man.
-------------------- Live for the moment you are in nowDon't be bogged down by your pastDon't be afraid of what lies in your future
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The24HourMC
Master Of Ceremonies
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Re: Scientist Creates First Synthetic Life [Re: niteowl]
#12598078 - 05/20/10 01:13 PM (13 years, 10 months ago) |
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woah
-------------------- My Baby In MCLA Fuckin Shit Fuck that stay high
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g00ru
lit pants tit licker
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Re: Scientist Creates First Synthetic Life [Re: wowcoolman] 3
#12598118 - 05/20/10 01:18 PM (13 years, 10 months ago) |
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They used a living cell to make it though...it's not like creating life from scratch. That's still amazing, but I'll be more amazed when they make an environment of amino acids that spontaneously starts to self replicate.
-------------------- check out my music! drowse in prison and your waking will be but loss
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kissablemilklight
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Re: Scientist Creates First Synthetic Life [Re: g00ru]
#12598155 - 05/20/10 01:25 PM (13 years, 10 months ago) |
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Holy shit! This could either be the end of the world or the spark to a much, much, much greater world. HOLY SHIT!
Technology man
-------------------- "It's Gloom as unpredicted on this earth. I realize all the uncountable manifestations the thinking-mind invents to place wall of horror before pure realization that there is no wall and there is no horror just transcendental empty kissable milk light of everlasting eternity's pure and perfect empty nature"- Kerouac Party Tent Brewing
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MisterMuscaria
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Re: Scientist Creates First Synthetic Life [Re: wowcoolman]
#12598202 - 05/20/10 01:34 PM (13 years, 10 months ago) |
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I hope gonz doesnt read this
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2Cents
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Re: Scientist Creates First Synthetic Life [Re: MisterMuscaria]
#12598231 - 05/20/10 01:40 PM (13 years, 10 months ago) |
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I think this is great news. a step in the direction of shutting creationist mouths.
-------------------- Long live the Shroomery!!!
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plasma
ɹoʇɐɹǝpoɯ
Registered: 09/17/08
Posts: 10,001
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Re: Scientist Creates First Synthetic Life [Re: 2Cents]
#12598280 - 05/20/10 01:46 PM (13 years, 10 months ago) |
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This is fucking amazing. Future for the win
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koppie
astral projectile
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Posts: 2,653
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Re: Scientist Creates First Synthetic Life [Re: 2Cents]
#12598286 - 05/20/10 01:47 PM (13 years, 10 months ago) |
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What do you mean? This is PROOF that intelligent design is possible. By that I mean that scientists can do it. The biblical god with an attention span of a four year old and a temper to match it couldn't even string together a bow and arrow without raining down plagues on five Egyptian villages from frustration.
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BothHands
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Re: Scientist Creates First Synthetic Life [Re: wowcoolman]
#12598317 - 05/20/10 01:52 PM (13 years, 10 months ago) |
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.....
..
....whoah...
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sheldogg5
Stranger
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Re: Scientist Creates First Synthetic Life [Re: koppie]
#12598322 - 05/20/10 01:54 PM (13 years, 10 months ago) |
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we...are....GOD
-------------------- everything i post is entirely fictional "and then one day you find 10 years have got behind you no one told you when to run...you missed the starting gun" "for long you live and high you fly, but only if you ride the tide, balanced on the biggest wave you race towards an early grave"
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shivas.wisdom
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Re: Scientist Creates First Synthetic Life [Re: BothHands] 2
#12598330 - 05/20/10 01:55 PM (13 years, 10 months ago) |
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Jesus Christ...
it's only a matter of time before they start putting extra asses on everything
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PsychedelicSpirit
Priest of Hathor
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Re: Scientist Creates First Synthetic Life [Re: shivas.wisdom]
#12598334 - 05/20/10 01:56 PM (13 years, 10 months ago) |
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Lolwtf.
-------------------- Reality is a crutch for people who can't handle drugs.
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deCypher
Registered: 02/10/08
Posts: 56,232
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Re: Scientist Creates First Synthetic Life [Re: plasma]
#12598341 - 05/20/10 01:57 PM (13 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
plasma said: This is fucking amazing. Future for the win
-------------------- We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
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