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Scientist creates life

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Comments

  • #32
    ScumLord
    Registered Users Posts: 28,789 ✭✭✭✭ScumLord


    O good, it sounds like the end is nigher than ever.


  • #33
    Wolfe Tone
    Closed Accounts Posts: 14,670 ✭✭✭✭Wolfe Tone


    Now all we need is for someone to take this knowledge and make it into some sort of weapon .


  • #34
    bytey
    Closed Accounts Posts: 266 ✭✭bytey


    create life me hole ,

    all he did was manipulate already existing life.
    im not religious , but its actually a case for a higher intelligence being confirmed.

    lets see how far he'd get with a bucket of sand and a barrell of water- not too far im reckoning


  • #35
    ScumLord
    Registered Users Posts: 28,789 ✭✭✭✭ScumLord


    MUSSOLINI wrote: »
    Now all we need is for someone to take this knowledge and make it into some sort of weapon .
    I plan to throw the artificial life form at the assistant, the assistant has a weak stomach I'm fairly confident being covered in deadly artificial life will cause her to vomit, if my timings correct this will happen just before Derrick walks into the room with the mid morning tea and biscuits. He'll not notice the sick on the ground and will slip, losing his balance causing him to tumble out the window I had opened not 20 minutes earlier, he'll plummet over 5 feet (unless my plan to move the lab to the 6th floor gets the go ahead, although it's unlikely to happen before mid morning tea and biscuits) to the flower bed below the window causing him annoyance, embarrassment and maybe even a booboo.


  • #36
    mikom
    Closed Accounts Posts: 16,391 ✭✭✭✭mikom


    Dudes name is Craig Venter.

    Craig Venter, the life inventer.

    When he dies people will go........... "The life in Venter is gone."


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  • #37
    strobe
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,872 ✭✭✭strobe


    bytey wrote: »
    create life me hole ,

    all he did was manipulate already existing life.
    im not religious , but its actually a case for a higher intelligence being confirmed.

    lets see how far he'd get with a bucket of sand and a barrell of water- not too far im reckoning

    Give him a couple of billion years and every chemical on earth being mixed in every way imaginable and exposed to every environment that could exist in the span of a couple of billion years to go with that bucket of sand and barrel of water and I reckon he would get very far indeed. Time constraint is not a case for a higher intelligence.

    I agree with the people that said it is bizare that someone can patent a living thing. Completely understandable why a company would want to though. This project and many others would never have got the funding needed if there was no possibility of a net profit somewhere down the line. It's a sad fact but that is capitalism for you. Legislation is definately needed to address the legalities of organic engineering.

    I also agree with whoever it was that expressed concerns about an organism escaping into the wild and mutating..... "life will find a way", as our lord almighty, the Raptor Jesus, once preached. There was already an instance of a bio engineered bacteria, which was all set to be released into the wild for commercial purposes. It broke down dead crops and turned them into alcohol. The wonderful thing about it was that it could thrive in any known plant so could be used across the board. It was only after it was granted approval that an independant scientific team proved that the bacteria didn't actually wait till the plants were dead to break them down...........A bacteria that spreads like wild fire and can break down any plant life it infects was almost released into the world. Scary stuff.


  • #38
    craggles
    Registered Users Posts: 664 ✭✭✭craggles


    He has created life. He basically made up an entirely new genome from scratch then placed it into a host cell. Entirely new organism once it replicates using the artificial DNA. New life. From scratch. Only thing he didn't do was make a host cell from scratch but that's a minor detail, the DNA is the source of all the genetic information anyway.


  • #39
    craggles
    Registered Users Posts: 664 ✭✭✭craggles


    bytey wrote: »
    create life me hole ,

    all he did was manipulate already existing life.
    im not religious , but its actually a case for a higher intelligence being confirmed.

    lets see how far he'd get with a bucket of sand and a barrell of water- not too far im reckoning

    I don't think you realise how incredible this achievement is.


  • #40
    nachoman
    Registered Users Posts: 232 ✭✭nachoman


    I'm curious, what implications would this discovery have for life in lets say 20 years in the futre?


  • #41
    bytey
    Closed Accounts Posts: 266 ✭✭bytey


    craggles wrote: »
    I don't think you realise how incredible this achievement is.

    dont fret , I realise , but its not "creating life"

    if he also created the host cell- now then id be impressed .
    " minor detail " me arse - lets see him do it .

    rest of its just lego with genes


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  • #42
    bytey
    Closed Accounts Posts: 266 ✭✭bytey


    strobe wrote: »
    Give him a couple of billion years and every chemical on earth being mixed in every way imaginable and exposed to every environment that could exist in the span of a couple of billion years to go with that bucket of sand and barrel of water and I reckon he would get very far indeed. Time constraint is not a case for a higher intelligence.

    I agree with the people that said it is bizare that someone can patent a living thing. Completely understandable why a company would want to though. This project and many others would never have got the funding needed if there was no possibility of a net profit somewhere down the line. It's a sad fact but that is capitalism for you. Legislation is definately needed to address the legalities of organic engineering.

    I also agree with whoever it was that expressed concerns about an organism escaping into the wild and mutating..... "life will find a way", as our lord almighty, the Raptor Jesus, once preached. There was already an instance of a bio engineered bacteria, which was all set to be released into the wild for commercial purposes. It broke down dead crops and turned them into alcohol. The wonderful thing about it was that it could thrive in any known plant so could be used across the board. It was only after it was granted approval that an independant scientific team proved that the bacteria didn't actually wait till the plants were dead to break them down...........A bacteria that spreads like wild fire and can break down any plant life it infects was almost released into the world. Scary stuff.

    rubbish , the stats on life forming randomly are millions of times worse than zero -
    FACT
    no one can explain how it happens - its actually impossible .


  • #43
    Zombienosh
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,911 ✭✭✭Zombienosh


    making people.... to replace people.... to work in crap jobs....what will happen us? ahhh!


  • #44
    faceman
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 16,584 CMod ✭✭✭✭faceman


    Just because I built a helimachopter out of a box of lego doesnt make me a creator of Lego.


  • #45
    strobe
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,872 ✭✭✭strobe


    bytey wrote: »
    rubbish , the stats on life forming randomly are millions of times worse than zero -
    FACT
    no one can explain how it happens - its actually impossible .

    Are you taking the piss? I can't tell. The stats on you randomly actually sitting here right now, at this time, in this place, typing that message, are "millions of times worse than zero". Every single permutation from the start of time had to coincide perfectly for you to type that message, an atom out of place anywhere along the timeline of the universe could have meant you never typed that message. But you are here, in this place, at this time, typing that message.........aren't you?


  • #46
    Kazuma
    Registered Users Posts: 558 ✭✭✭Kazuma


    bytey wrote: »
    rubbish , the stats on life forming randomly are millions of times worse than zero -
    FACT
    no one can explain how it happens - its actually impossible .
    Stats? Do you mean chance? The chance of life forming randomly is millions of times worse than zero? Think perhaps you need a crash course in basic mathematics :rolleyes:

    The chances may be slim in something like our lifetimes, but given the amount of time it had to happen, it seems quite plausible. Perhaps you should read up on some of the current theories of abiogenesis?


  • #47
    Gone Drinking
    Registered Users Posts: 2,808 ✭✭✭Gone Drinking


    faceman wrote: »
    Just because I built a helimachopter out of a box of lego doesnt make me a creator of Lego.

    Can't believe you're the inventor of LEGO


  • #48
    Stop....Hammer Time
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6 ✭Stop....Hammer Time


    Create Zombies ftw





    *Joins Zombie Forum


  • #49
    raah!
    Registered Users Posts: 2,629 ✭✭✭raah!


    Where does this playing god business come from at all? I only ever hear it in conjunction with things like stem cells or other such modern biological practices. I don't imagine those were mentioned too much in the bible. Then again they might have been :P

    I think ye are being overly harsh on byty there. Obviously he didn't mean they were "worse than zero" that doesn't even mean anything, criticising something that doesn't mean anything doesn't mean anything either.

    Kazuma time doesn't really have any effect on these "fine tuning" arguments (as far as I know). They are more about a coincidence of constants and all that. It becomes more probable if you have lots of universes, or lots of different parts of the universe with different sets of laws.


  • #50
    Kazuma
    Registered Users Posts: 558 ✭✭✭Kazuma


    raah! wrote: »
    Where does this playing god business come from at all? I only ever hear it in conjunction with things like stem cells or other such modern biological practices. I don't imagine those were mentioned too much in the bible. Then again they might have been :P

    I think ye are being overly harsh on byty there. Obviously he didn't mean they were "worse than zero" that doesn't even mean anything, criticising something that doesn't mean anything doesn't mean anything either.

    Kazuma time doesn't really have any effect on these "fine tuning" arguments (as far as I know). They are more about a coincidence of constants and all that. It becomes more probable if you have lots of universes, or lots of different parts of the universe with different sets of laws.
    Perhaps you're right, I might have been a little too quick on the harshness :)
    The use of "impossible" set me off though :pac:


  • #51
    genericguy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,831 ✭✭✭genericguy


    nachoman wrote: »
    I'm curious, what implications would this discovery have for life in lets say 20 years in the futre?

    it basically means that processes such as those used for the production of proteins - which are becoming the main ways of producing medicines for various complex diseases and disorders, can potentially be achieved in days and weeks rather than years as is currently the case. the same idea can be applied to developing cells capable of producing bio-fuels and to environmental clean-ups. make a bacteria capable of producing fuels as a by-product of it's own metabolism, engineer them to eat oil/radioactive waste/plastics. the possibilities are endless.

    being able to produce bacteria (not to mention any higher organisms) with characteristics that are completely defined and desirable is a massive boost to any biological or chemical-based industry.

    many scientists have argued that this isn't breakthrough science, because this is already achievable to an extent, although it takes a massive amount of time and work. i'd be inclined to agree with this observation to some degree, as the concept is not that compex, but in terms of technique, Venter is in a league of his own.


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  • #52
    genericguy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,831 ✭✭✭genericguy


    bytey, your post is rubbish by the way. you could just stand back and say nothing, or at the very least admit that your ignorance of science (and mathematics, obviously) renders you unqualified to participate in such an argument.


  • #53
    Cool Mo D
    Registered Users Posts: 1,419 ✭✭✭Cool Mo D


    He didn't quite create new life. He synthesised DNA of one known type of bacteria, put it into a different type of existing bacteria, and saw that the second bacteria took on the properties of the first. He also put in genetic tags in the DNA to prove that it was his DNA doing the work. Note that DNA is only about 1% of the dry weight of the cell.

    What he did was analogous to taking a watch, taking it apart piece by piece, before copying the bits, and putting it back in the original case, and having it work. - it's an achievement, but it doesn't mean you can design your own watch.

    It's a very impressive achievement though, and it's only a matter of time before a completely synthetic life form is made.


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