Scientists create a living organism

[trOver]

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/science/05/20/scientists.organism.ft/?hpt=T1

(FT) -- Scientists have turned inanimate chemicals into a living organism in an experiment that raises profound questions about the essence of life.

Craig Venter, the U.S. genomics pioneer, announced on Thursday that scientists at his laboratories in Maryland and California had succeeded in their 15-year project to make the world's first "synthetic cells" -- bacteria called Mycoplasma mycoides.

"We have passed through a critical psychological barrier," Dr. Venter told the FT. "It has changed my own thinking, both scientifically and philosophically, about life, and how it works."




this is going to stir some things up...

 

[Tristicus]

Okay.

 

[Zebo]

When the can make these. I'll be impressed.

 

[JSt0rm]

oops. now what god people?

 

[Zebo]

oops. now what god people?

There are lots of religions people who believe God put the elements together, elements he created, formed dna/rna, cells and what not and let it roll from there. Sorta a "inspired evolution." Not sure what it's really called...maybe "intelligent design?"

 

[DanDaManJC]

So how would this research fit into the currently most credible theory of abiogenesis? Or more likely, it seems like it would affirm it.... although it's bit different since in this case we actually had a creator.

 

[Tristicus]

oops. now what god people?

Prove to me that a god doesn't exist so I can conform to your beliefs.

You're just as bad as the religious people.

 

[JSt0rm]

Prove to me that a god doesn't exist so I can conform to your beliefs.

You're just as bad as the religious people.

I'm not trying to change peoples beliefs. I just think its funny when they fight science.

 

[Brainonska511]

The big feat was chemically synthesizing such a long polymer (the strand of DNA) in vitro and have it work in vivo. They didn't actually make a completely synthetic organism, as they used existing bacteria as the host for the 'new' DNA.

 

[Infohawk]

Prove to me that a god doesn't exist so I can conform to your beliefs.

You're just as bad as the religious people.

You a superstition apologist?

 

[dpearson]

I'm not trying to change peoples beliefs. I just think its funny when they fight science.

When you say it's funny when these "god people fight science", you're including people like Francis Collins http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Collins_(geneticist) in your condescension.

Francis Collins was the Director of the Human Genome Project from 1993-2008 and is currently the Director of the National Institutes of Health. He is also a Christian.

He wrote a book called Language of God which basically reconciled evolution and Christianity.

There are plenty of intelligent Christians out there who embrace science, so don't throw them under the bus with the Creationists.

 

[Matthiasa]

Maybe I would be impressed if it wasn't effectively just cloning.
They took an already existing bacteria, added 14 marker genes, and sequences.
Creation of new life not found.
Well no more so then a male and female eating dead stuff (not life) it going to reproductive cells, and those cells then creating a new whatever.
Or even just a cell absorbing some minerals and splinting.
The copying of DNA in a cell isn’t far removed from their synthesis machine, so why is this a surprise.

 

[jackschmittusa]

Matthiasa

Don't see this as the equivalent of cloning at all.

 

[CycloWizard]

I found it interesting that the author(s) of this article and the Time article insist that this guy created life, but the author of the study never made that claim. He reprogrammed the genetics of the cell from scratch, which is absolutely amazing and has some really great applications (as mentioned briefly in the Time article), but that's not quite the same thing as "creating life." The ignorance of journalists never ceases to amaze me.

 

[Moonbeam]

I found it interesting that the author(s) of this article and the Time article insist that this guy created life, but the author of the study never made that claim. He reprogrammed the genetics of the cell from scratch, which is absolutely amazing and has some really great applications (as mentioned briefly in the Time article), but that's not quite the same thing as "creating life." The ignorance of journalists never ceases to amaze me.

You are talking about the journalist's work and you call him ignorant. Hehe, I think he fooled you.

 

[Inspector Jihad]

Prove to me that a god doesn't exist so I can conform to your beliefs.

lool

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Well this shows that news outlets don't know anything about biology either. They put constructed DNA into a "shell".

Sounds like they took a hollow ball and filled it with "life stuff" or whatever.

No they duplicated a polymer and put it into something that is far more complicated than anything humans have developed and it worked.

In effect they forged a key, put it into a cars ignition and started it. That act "created" the car.

This hasn't anything to do with religion one way or another.

It's a neat trick which shows the ignorance of press and posters. Oy.

 

[Tristicus]

So they ripped all the DNA out of a cell, built their own dna from scratch then put it in the empty cell and it brought it back to life.

In computer terms they bought a dell then put linux on it.

No. In computer terms they bought a Dell, smashed the whole thing apart, then used the smashed-up BIOS chip as a template to build a whole new BIOS chip, then put that into a completely separate Dell with a completely different model motherboard. And then they booted it up and put Linux on it.

 

[Carmen813]

Well this shows that news outlets don't know anything about biology either. They put constructed DNA into a "shell".

Sounds like they took a hollow ball and filled it with "life stuff" or whatever.

No they duplicated a polymer and put it into something that is far more complicated than anything humans have developed and it worked.

In effect they forged a key, put it into a cars ignition and started it. That act "created" the car.

This hasn't anything to do with religion one way or another.

It's a neat trick which shows the ignorance of press and posters. Oy.

The way you described this makes me think of how the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park were created.

 

[dmcowen674]

Chud

 

[woolfe9999]

There are lots of religions people who believe God put the elements together, elements he created, formed dna/rna, cells and what not and let it roll from there. Sorta a "inspired evolution." Not sure what it's really called...maybe "intelligent design?"

This isn't about disproving every possible conception of a deity(s). It is about proving that wholly naturalistic answers to the "why are we here" question are possible.

- wolf

 

[Lemon law]

Journalists and not scientists have a long history of over inflating discoveries. And I agree that no life was per say created here.

And in fact there was an earlier attempt that flopped simply because just one genetic letter in a very complex sequence of letters was just one letter off.

What this discovery amounts to is more of a hat trick in terms of genetic cloning and copying, something scientists have been doing for at least three decades or so. But its my basic understanding that this particular example is a significant advance because this man made chemical is capable of handling all the basic metabolic machinery of a self sustaining one cell organism instead of being a mere add on gene.

 

[Moonbeam]

This isn't about disproving every possible conception of a deity(s). It is about proving that wholly naturalistic answers to the "why are we here" question are possible.

- wolf

And not only possible but necessary. I believe we have only so much time to prove a natural explanation for why we are here or we will simply disappear.

 

[Fear No Evil]

So how do the scientists explain how 'matter' and 'energy' were created? It was always just there? Sounds like faith to me. There will always be things science can't explain.

 

[zsdersw]

There will always be things science can't explain yet.

Fixed.