It's alive!

[Empty Hands]

Scientists from the Venter Institute have successfully created a synthetic cell by reprogramming a hollowed out bacterium with a completely synthetic and engineered genome. For those keeping track at home, J. Craig Venter was a key figure in the Human Genome Project, who famously feuded with the scientists at the NIH over the method. Since then, he has had his institute focusing on synthetic life and minimal genomes.

A very interesting achievement. It won't necessarily make us better at engineering fun new things, we're already pretty good at that. It does tell us more about the minimal conditions for life. It proves that there is no "spark" in living creatures or something unique about DNA from an organism. It's all just chemicals, and the bacteria couldn't tell the difference with the synthetic DNA. I look forward to the day when the accomplishment can be replicated from scratch using entirely off-the-shelf chemicals, instead of relying on a cell that has the DNA removed.

 

[Andy Moynihan]

I'm having "Blade Runner" flashbacks.....

 

[Sukerkin]

A fascinating study indeed. Thanks for sharing it.

 

[tellner]

PZ Myers has a very good precisof this on his excellent blog Pharyngula. The project required a lot of very cool molecular tricks and significant new science and technology.

There may well be a trip to Sweden in someone's future for this.

Reports of a strange piping sounding like Tekili-li! Tekili-li! and a mad cackling of "Shoggoths for everyone!" from the lab should be viewed with extreme skepticism

 

[tellner]

I look forward to the day when the accomplishment can be replicated from scratch using entirely off-the-shelf chemicals, instead of relying on a cell that has the DNA removed.

That's going to be a lot tougher. Even though prokaryotes don't have a lot of internal structures getting the membranes right would be very tricky. If they want to make eukaryotes it will be orders of magnitude harder. Eukaryotic cells are chock-full of complex things. Just making artificial mitochondria would be years of work.

But some day, some day...

 

[cdunn]

That's going to be a lot tougher. Even though prokaryotes don't have a lot of internal structures getting the membranes right would be very tricky. If they want to make eukaryotes it will be orders of magnitude harder. Eukaryotic cells are chock-full of complex things. Just making artificial mitochondria would be years of work.

But some day, some day...

The journey of a thousand miles, and all that. I think this is going to bear pharmacological fruit within the decade, though.

 

[Satt]

Everyone THINKS this is a good thing, but have you even SEEN Resident Evil? The zombie appocalipse is comming!!!

:anic::wuguns:

 

[elder999]

Everyone THINKS this is a good thing, but have you even SEEN Resident Evil? The zombie appocalipse is comming!!!

Not everyone:


Church warns cell scientists not to play God:

ROME –Catholic Church officials said Friday the recent creation by researchers of the first synthetic cell can be a positive development if correctly used, but warned scientists that only God can create life.

"Pretending to be God and parroting his power of creation is an enormous risk that can plunge men into a barbarity," Mogavero told newspaper La Stampa in an interview. Scientists "should never forget that there is only one creator: God."

 

[Empty Hands]

Everyone THINKS this is a good thing, but have you even SEEN Resident Evil? The zombie appocalipse is comming!!!

Sweet, I'm looking forward to it. I've been practicing on my Zombie Killing Simulator (AKA XBox) for years now, and I'm itching to test my skills!

 

[Empty Hands]

Not everyone:


Church warns cell scientists not to play God:

I'm sure a gaggle of mostly atheist scientists will take this religious warning to heart.

It's also almost certainly wrong. Life is chemistry, not a "divine spark". This experiment demonstrated that in part. Someday the chemistry will be replicated de novo, and if your religious faith depends on man not being able to create life, it will be shattered that day. So I would suggest a religious faith that does not require that. Even my Christian science professors in college said the same thing.

 

[RandomPhantom700]

Sweet, I'm looking forward to it. I've been practicing on my Zombie Killing Simulator (AKA XBox) for years now, and I'm itching to test my skills!

My friend's had zombie apocalypse contingency plans in the back of his mind for years. I'd assumed it was just a joke, but....well, the plans are getting more thought out by the day.

My choice of zombie-killing weapons? Flamethrower.

Oh, and kudos to the scientists for this achievement. Science-fiction horror stories aside, the development sounds really cool.

 

[tellner]

The Zombipocalypse doesn't worry me.
What I find disturbing is the faint piping around the lab which witnesses say sounds like "Tekeli-li! Tekili-li!" and Venter's motto "Shoggoths for everyone!"

 

[elder999]

I'm sure a gaggle of mostly atheist scientists will take this religious warning to heart..

This keeps getting bandied about, and it's really true in the rest of the world, but not here in the crazy U.S.A., where this took place. Granted, more biologists are atheists than other scientists in the U.S., but the percentage of those that believe in a deity is still much higher than elsewhere in the world......
....of course, most of them aren't Catholic :lol:

 

[cdunn]

I'm sure a gaggle of mostly atheist scientists will take this religious warning to heart.

It's also almost certainly wrong. Life is chemistry, not a "divine spark". This experiment demonstrated that in part. Someday the chemistry will be replicated de novo, and if your religious faith depends on man not being able to create life, it will be shattered that day. So I would suggest a religious faith that does not require that. Even my Christian science professors in college said the same thing.

So very true.

Aw well, it is not the zombies that we need to fear, but rather, what has been pointed out to us in other works of fiction.

... "Clever girl."

 

[Empty Hands]

This keeps getting bandied about, and it's really true in the rest of the world, but not here in the crazy U.S.A., where this took place.

According to surveys from the Pew Forum, only 33% of scientists here claim to believe in God. Another 18% do not believe in "God", but believe in a "universal spirit or higher power", whatever that means. So at most, you get half of scientists as theists. Of that half, I'm sure some do not believe in a Creator God.

 

[elder999]

According to surveys from the Pew Forum, only 33% of scientists here claim to believe in God. Another 18% do not believe in "God", but believe in a "universal spirit or higher power", whatever that means. So at most, you get half of scientists as theists. Of that half, I'm sure some do not believe in a Creator God.

Pretty much like I said (I didn't quote numbers, but I would've said "1 in 3"), except it varies widely by discipline. LOTS of physicists believe in "God."

 

[geezer]

My friend's had zombie apocalypse contingency plans in the back of his mind for years. I'd assumed it was just a joke, but....well, the plans are getting more thought out by the day.

My choice of zombie-killing weapons? Flamethrower.

Oh, and kudos to the scientists for this achievement. Science-fiction horror stories aside, the development sounds really cool.

Flamethrower... bad choice. Zombies are so "numbed-out that they can keep on coming for up to a minute or two even when covered in flames. You don't want to have to go all BJJ on a bitey Zombie that's covered in flames. Stick with a shotgun. Even when you run out of shells it still makes a good club.

Speaking of Zombies, remember the end of Sean of the Dead? If they could ever get to that level with this life synthesizing technology and could use the re-animated dead for simple manual lobor, we'd solve the immigration problem too. "No voy a cruzar pa' el otro lado, compa. Los malditos muertos ya han agarrado toda la chamba, pues!" (Ah ain't gonna cross the border, buddy. The damned zombies have taken all the jobs!)

As for the Catholic Church's moral concern's I couldn't give a hoot. Maybe I'll consider the Catholic perspective when they stop protecting pederast priests while excommunicating a very ethical nun who authorized an abortion in order to save the life of the mother (rather than let both mother and embryo die). BTW any of you guys hear about this one?

 

[teekin]

Pretty much like I said (I didn't quote numbers, but I would've said "1 in 3"), except it varies widely by discipline. LOTS of physicists believe in "God."

Elder, I have to wonder why this is. As far as I can tell Biology is applied Chemistry and Physics, Chemistry is applied macroPhysics and Math, and Physics is very high level applied conceputal Math. You'd think there would be common ground. "God" fits in here for me when I started to get the idea that Chemistry was knowing when to apply particle function Physics and when to apply wave function Physics. I also began to see that something was missing from the big picture, and to see why a grand unification theory was implied. There seems to be rhyme and reason and design. It's not chaos.

Lori

 

[teekin]

Everyone THINKS this is a good thing, but have you even SEEN Resident Evil? The zombie appocalipse is comming!!!

:anic::wuguns:

Well Thank God!!!!! Finnaly! Now I have use for the garbage bags full of Ammo and Zombie bait. See, this is Mother Earth's answer to over population. Zombies. Those who smell strongly of KFC, BK and McDonalds will go first, oddly enough they are also very tough on the planet. They will also likely be the slowest. The ones who smell like broccoli and Soy will likely be quicker and hence be last. Darwin in action.

Lori

 

[Sukerkin]

Oh how I pray {irony overload :lol:} for the day when we finally understand the missing 'pieces' and slot together a Theory of Everything.

It is one of my great fascinations that we have working theories for the very small and working theories for the very large but don't have a way to glue them together. Oh and on the subject of biology, it blows my mind that our sense of smell works using quantum tunneling! How cool is that?!