Manmade DNA in Lab

[Linus]

Source: Huffington Post

WASHINGTON — Scientists announced a bold step Thursday in the enduring quest to create artificial life. They've produced a living cell 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.


But Maryland genome-mapping pioneer J. Craig Venter said his team's project paves the way for the ultimate, much harder goal: designing organisms that work differently from the way nature intended for a wide range of uses. Already he's working with ExxonMobil in hopes of turning algae into fuel.


"This is the first self-replicating species we've had on the planet whose parent is a computer," Venter told reporters.


And the report, being published Friday in the journal Science, is triggering excitement in this growing field of synthetic biology.


<snip -- more at the link>

I'm still trying to decide whether this is good or not. Part of me says, yes. Great! Perhaps we could create stem cells (and thus, remove the fight against them). Or perhaps (as the article mentioned above) we could create a new fuel source.

But there's an ethical part of me that wonders about this. From my experience a a security computer geek, one thing I have learned is that for every tool that has a good use someone will use it in ways we never conceived or intended to conceive.

Is this the dawn of a new age on Earth for mankind or just mad science?

[Kobi]

Think your right Linus. Could be a good thing or a not so good thing depending on its applications.

Science is always fascinating. Just think of the changes and discoveries that have occured in our lifetime.

Scientists.....I am fond of the mad ones who push the envelope simply for the sake of developing new things. I am not so fond of the ones who take that new knowledge in order to exploit it financially.

[waxnrope]

I am attempting to practice what I preach and step outside of the binary presented here ... difficult, but will get back to this thread. There is a lot at stake here. I am sure that fundamentalist will have a field day and thus, perhaps artificially, force me to chose one "side" of the argument.

[Lynn]

Science and technology are moving ahead so quickly, they seem to exceed our capacity for understanding and controlling them, sometimes. There are ethical considerations in all cases, and I think we're right to wonder whether we can be trusted to use the knowledge in the best interest of humankind. At the same time, the progress is inevitable, and I do think that the potential for good is so great. Not pressing forward because we are afraid of our own weaknesses is a poor reason for progress to slow.

Those are some of my initial thoughts....

[Andrew, Jr.]

While my sister, Jo, was at NIH being treated for melanoma, the doctors were treating her with stem cells, chemo, and experimental drugs. They have a building that houses cloned animals and human-like bodies (I am not sure of what the term is actually). They are the cutting edge of medicine in using stem cells to treat everything from disfigured people, to those who are terminally ill with cancers. It is online at the NIH website if you wish to look it up.

Until doctors find a way to break the DNA codes of the various diseases and such, people are going to die. Until then, we can only hope that those who try the clinical trials, and financially support the researchers, we just can hope and pray for a miracle.

In the back of my mind, in all honesty, from what I saw at NIH, I do believe that there is a cure of so many diseases. It is just that the drug companies want to keep a lid on it. That way they have the money, power, and control.

[Nat]

Wow this is amazingly huge news I think. Thank you so much for posting it.

[Spirit Dancer]

Linus
thank you for sharing this news, it is especially hopeful
to those whose familes are in desperate need to matched donors and cannot find one.
It's hard to watch a loved one wither away while waiting for stems cells.
Imagaine being told out of 9 million people there is no match, now with this new technology maybe more people will have a better chance at beating cancer.