News

[Meem]

A step to artificial life: Manmade DNA powers cell

By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer Lauran Neergaard, Ap Medical Writer – Thu May 20, 7:54 pm ET
WASHINGTON – Scientists announced a bold step Thursday in the enduring quest to create artificial life. They've produced a [COLOR=#366388 !important][COLOR=#366388 !important]living [COLOR=#366388 !important]cell[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR] powered by manmade DNA. While such work can evoke images of Frankenstein-like scientific tinkering, it also is exciting hopes that it could eventually lead to new fuels, better ways to clean polluted water, faster vaccine production and more.
Is it really an artificial life form?
The inventors call it the world's first synthetic cell, although this initial step is more a re-creation of existing life — changing one simple type of bacterium into another — than a built-from-scratch kind.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100520/...synthetic_cell

I hope we are ready for this. Interesting possibilities.

[SteveA]

Amazing timing, I was looking at an article similar to this just a few minutes ago (I remembered hearing about a potentially different type of DNA structure made with different elements and was trying to find that information when I saw this).

Well, (for better or worse) it's definitely a changing world ...

[Mikal]

Hi Meem...I was reading the "ethical" part in your link and found it puzzling that all Intellectual responders talked like they were in a straitjacket where the ethics of this had to be discussed strictly in the paremeters of "political correctness." One responder stated these scientists are regulated by an overview panel....if that is true then maybe they are all asleep at the helm.


Regards Mikal