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Artificial life
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150529
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Post by
pezz
Just FYI, that's a link to an article about Pacman.
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150529
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374287
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124027
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Post by
EpicDragon
"Now, the scientists have put both methods together, to create what they call a "synthetic cell", although only its genome is truly synthetic. "
What they've essentially done is manufacture a small length of genomic material and insert it into a bacterium that has had it's own genetic material destroyed. While an achievement in itself, this is not creating new life, and also is not the first time it has been done. As the article above states "it was done on a much smaller scale around 1972 by Arthur Cornberg and Bob Sinsimer".
Essentially what they've done is take a fully functioning cell and shove in a string of random DNA. The cell 'looks like a real cell' but has no capability to function outside of simply 'existing' like a brick would 'exist'. The difficult part is inserting a string large enough to contain all the genes required for a bacterium to do as the creator required, including make copies of itself and also ensuring it has its own cell structures allowing it to actually interact with the environment. A bacterium with the genome to digest oil is of no use unless it also has the proteins embedded in its phospholipid outer coat to actually bond with, recognise and absorb the oil molecules, and also the internal structure available to allow the proteins to function and to actually digest the oil.
To create an image, they have no more created life than if I took two living people, removed the internal organs of both. Chopped them up, and shoved them back in. I could hardly claim I've created new life now could I even if I have discovered a new way of putting everything back in?
I don't think that's how they did it. We have indeed combined/altered DNA's of bacteria before, the difference now is (what I understand) that this DNA is completely artificial, they built it from the ground up. While I do agree that they won't have created real life before they actually make a 100% artificial cell, I do think this is a landmark for future science.
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273605
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150529
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124027
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Post by
MischievousLoki
I'm more impressed by the genetically altered plant seeds people have been making for years through trial and error.
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273605
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150529
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487010
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124027
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182246
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Post by
kattib
Actually, funny you should mention the rate at which computers advance because that is what holds genetics research back. We need faster bloody computers. Unfortunately were starting to hit the physical limitations of silicon chips. Bring on the carbon chip revolution!
Off-topic: actually its not carbon chips that are coming but quantum computing
Basically it detects the spin on a particle and uses that as the 1 or 0 bit, so instead of millions of subatomic particles (for magnetic domains for current systems) it shall be 1 subatomic particle per bit
Basically unlimited information :D
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124027
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73830
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