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Monday 31 May 2010

Re: [wanita-muslimah] Fwd: [FKUGM] Scientists create a living organism

 

NOP, just playing human....
;-)

----- Original Message -----
From: "donnie damana" <donnie.damana@gmail.com>
To: <wanita-muslimah@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, May 31, 2010 10:56 PM
Subject: [wanita-muslimah] Fwd: [FKUGM] Scientists create a living organism

>
> Playing GOD?
>
> :D
>
>>
>> Scientists create a living organism
>> http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/science/05/20/scientists.organism.ft/index.html?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."
>>
>> The bacteria's genes were all constructed in the laboratory "from four
>> bottles of chemicals on a chemical synthesizer, starting with information
>> on a computer," he said. The research -- published online by the journal
>> Science -- was hailed as a landmark by many independent scientists and
>> philosophers.
>>
>> "Venter is creaking open the most profound door in humanity's history,
>> potentially peeking into its destiny," said Julian Savulescu, ethics
>> professor at Oxford University. "This is a step towards ... creation of
>> living beings with capacities and natures that could never have naturally
>> evolved. The synthetic bacteria have 14 "watermark sequences" attached to
>> their genome -- inert stretches of DNA added to distinguish them from
>> their natural counterparts. They behaved and divided in lab dishes like
>> natural bacteria.
>>
>> M mycoides was chosen as a simple microbe with which to develop and prove
>> the technology. It has no immediate application. But scientists at the J.
>> Craig Venter Institute and Synthetic Genomics, the company funding their
>> research, intend to move quickly on to more useful targets that may not
>> exist in nature. They are particularly interested in designing algae that
>> can capture carbon dioxide from the air and produce hydrocarbon fuels.
>> Last year Synthetic Genomics signed a $600M agreement with Exxon Mobil to
>> make algal biofuels. "We have looked hard at natural algae, and we can't
>> find one that can make the fuels we want on the scales we need," Dr.
>> Venter said.
>>
>> The researchers built up the synthetic genome of M mycoides, with its
>> million chemical letters, by stitching together shorter stretches of DNA,
>> each about 1,000 letters long. They then transferred the completed genome
>> into the shell of another bacterium M capricolum whose own DNA had been
>> removed. The transplanted genome "booted up" the host cell and took over
>> its biological machinery. After 30 cell divisions, there were billions of
>> synthetic bacteria in the lab dishes -- all of them making exclusively
>> the biological molecules associated with M mycoides.
>>
>> Experts warn of the risks as well as the benefits of synthetic biology.
>> "We need new standards of safety evaluation for this kind of radical
>> research and protections from military or terrorist misuse and abuse,"
>> said Prof. Savulescu.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
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>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
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