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Bacteria Made to Behave as Computers
hende_jman writes "Scientists at Princeton University successfully 'programmed bacteria to behave like computers, assembling themselves into complex shapes based on instructions stuffed into their genes.' Though applications may not come for awhile, the article says that in the future this technology may be used in devices to detect bioterrorism chemicals. The article also has pictures of the programmed E. coli."
WRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY ;kj;jk;jk;jk;kewrj;aksdfj;kasdfjiopasdufipu
Though applications may not come for awhile, the article says that in the future this technology may be used in devices to detect bioterrorism chemicals.
Call me cynical, but I think this technology will be used in devices to make and control bioterrorism chemicals. And not necessarily by the "bad guys" either.
Bacteria.NET Sharp
Take the Dragon Survey
First, they made armed autonomous robots, now it's smart bacteria that is potentially deadly... All that remains now is for the two to team up against their human opressors. I feel good about it.
bash: rtfm: command not found
A Beow ... nevermind .. screw it..
.. The bacter... laaaaame
.. nevermind
I for one wel... naw, screw it
In Soviet Russia
the GN... err
Hmmm..
= Grow a brain...
Microsoft!
Ha.
"No, it's a diagnostic."
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Anybody else have visions of the Greg Bear book "Blood Music" when you read this?
= 17562821
http://www.allscifi.com/Topics/info_5673.asp?BSID
I dream in binary.
All they need to do now is do this to a virus... then maybe we can give the virus a virus. Kinda funny, but it would be cool if it led to the desctuction of aids.
The researchers programmed E. coli bacteria to emit red or green fluorescent light in response to a signal emitted from another set of E. coli. The living cells were commanded to make a bull's-eye pattern, for example, around central cells based on communication between the bacteria. The bacteria "have an exquisite capability to sense molecules in the environment," he said.( Ron Weiss) "The bull's-eye could tell you: This is where the anthrax is."
Pretty fascinating stuff, stuff like bacteria and viruses have been kicking our asses for years really, sure antibiotics gave us a temporary edge, but now we have super dooper antibiotic resistant versions. All our approaches have really been hit and miss, but now we can develop and program our own little bacteria super soldiers and fight them on their own terms with intelligent strategy backing us up.
The rock, the vulture, and the chain
Next week, in an even bigger scientific breakthrough, they're going to advance to images of mickey mouse, a human breast, and a zero.
It's amazing how you can control an organism's behavoir by altering it's DNA.
*yawn* Welp, time to go look at pictures of naked girls.
What kind of FPS does it get in HL2?
I can only imagine what wonderful ideas Micro$oft is coming up with right now... Imagine your 'computer' crashing and growing all over your house.
Wired did an article about a similar notion back in 1995 which was rather interesting at the time.
Bacteria computers... When they die, they really do shrivel up and die. No more blue screen of death... but someone will still have to clean up the mess. Go figure.
not long before someone ports my p2p app for this platform
fifteen jugglers, five believers
In post 9-11 soviet russia, only beowulf clusters of welcomed overlords are belong to old grit-eating Koreans!
There! See? Nothing to it.
Uh... oh yeah... and something something bacterial computers something
Anyone else read "Prey" by Micheal Crichton? If so, does any of this sound framiliar? hmmmmmmmmmmm
bash: rtfm: command not found
a betterpictureof bacteria assembling themselves into complex shapes based on instructions stuffed into their genes
serenity now!
Detection capabilities are measured in millions of samples nowdays. Moreover, why go through the hassle of growing up an organism, when just a piece of the organism will do? It's much harder to keep a colony of bacteria alive than the small protein/antibody fragments currently used as protein assays.
If we were to grow up enough of these cells to use in that many detection reactions, it would cost too much, take up too much space, and be too slow to be applied a high throughput system.
As for being "programmed", is it really news that cells behave based on their DNA and protein content? Too much PR spin on something not practical.
Flower my ass, it's a honeycomb dammit!
'Honeycomb's big, yeah yeah yeah! It's not small, no no no!'
crazy dynamite monkey
This explains why I could calculate PI to 1 000 000 decimals in 1.8 seconds the last time I was sick.
The Internet is full. Go Away!!!
Oops, wrong thread...thought I had something there for moment.
Geez, when was the last time researchers achieved something that *didn't* have applications in combating terrorism? Combating terrorism just isn't newsworthy anymore, everybody's doing it. Slashdot should post an article next time there's research that has absolutely no connection whatsoever with combating terrorism. Might be a while before that funding dries up though...
Can they run Tiger? //you thought i was going to say Linux didn't you.
If we can make computers out of bacteria, we can probably make them out of viruses too.
And that virus computer at some point could be made to run Windows...
And if they build this computer in Moscow we'll be able to say...
IN SOVIET RUSSIA, Windows runs on viruses!
Hear recorded Slashdot headlines on your phone! New service beta testing. Just call (248) 434-5508
Is it safe to run Norton A/V on this?
Inquiring minds want to know.
yuo=fag0t now stfu plzkthxdie lolocaust
If they start generating an AT field, kiss your ass goodbye.
8==8 Bones 8==8
Complete with the Blue Slime of Death.
I bet it takes forever to compile. Probably is really susceptable to gene buffer overflows too. Why can't anybody dream up a language that's both obscure and secure? Next project: Port Linux to bacteria!
[me] My %$#&#@@!!! E.Coli Computer keeps running slowly, too dangerous to my health, and is a waste of my time compared to it's electronic counterpart. Maybe if I sprinke a little um, penicillin on it, it might make it run faster [supressed snicker].
forget quantum computing I want to be the first on the block to have a fecal matter computer.
Well one can only hope that when the bacteria are released into the wild and are then mutated into some super virus (which was totally unexpected), we may have the saving grace of the virii BSOD.
;-)
Seriously though... interesting stuff... let's hope the evil people (choose your people) don't do something *evil* (or stupid) with it...
:-( --- argh. Despair, I owe again.
Is it just me that wonders why science can run along happily trying to create in reality what science fiction has been creating decades before it, yet seemingly blatantly ignoring all the lessons that were there to be learned in the science fiction stories?
Seems like there is some conspiracy, but something tells me that its just stupid human tricks to do things to see if they can, then stand back and wonder why it all went wrong?
Yes, it would be good to have programmed virii that might devour an oil spill then die harmlessly, or bacteria that can be injected into a chemical spill to clean it up, or down an oil well to preprocess the crude to make it easily recoverd from the ground....
Its just that no one seems to be working on figuring out the dangers at the same time as people are working on the possibilities...
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Coming soon, debugging bugs.
Letter To Iran
I have just the supercomputer in my backyard. 2 months worth of laundry with lots of 'programs' on them.
Perhaps the first program will be a cellular Autonoma simmulation. They could program it to play the game of Life.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
If you want to produce bioterrorism chemicals just produce them. Don't make a friggin' computer.
There was an article on similar technology in the May 2004 edition of Scientific American. More info here: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=0009FCA 4-1A8F-1085-94F483414B7F0000&sc=I100322/.
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. - Edmund Burke
I'm afraid these nobel scientists didn't stop to look at the bigger picture of what they're doing.
In a world after columbine, kids will soon be getting their hands on programmable bacteria kits and command them to give that class bully a case diahrrea.
The last thing you want is something to go wrong playing with this stuff. What if the bacteria mutates and no longer does its programmed purpose? What if it does something much worse?
Screw that shit, you pedestrian fools with your lack of vision. This is a big step in the science of eruntics! Now I just need to train those yeasty little bitches to tell me next Wedensday's lotto numbers!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Bacteria based computers? My computer was wiped out by a virus, you insensitive clod!
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
Now here's a real opportunity for a GNU license. Since Cell's carry their own genomes (and plasmids) one is in effect distributing the source code when you distribute the bugs. Plus there's the real opportunity for Viral Marketing (yes I know mr Bio nazi, bacteria are not viruses).
Actually what I find interesting here is not the applications but the opportunity to study something that is intermediate to a single cellular organism community and a multi-cellualr organism: Geometrically coupled, self organizing communities that communicate. Presumably the plasmids that cause this to happen will quickly find their way out of the lab and into the wild. At some point some natural community will find some selective advantage in being a tightly coupled community.
Since the the communication protocols they are developing are inteded to allow computation, it is plausible that the advantage some cwild community will derive from this will be based on non-trivial computation. Thus Thinking structures in bacteria may evolve from this.
You wont just think you have a cold. Rather your cold may have a think. (yes mr bio nazi I know colds are viruses)
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Please don't be offended at the subject, it is intended in the best spirit of Wicked Witch of the West broom-riding cackling.
Mod tards: This is drooling paranoid drivel. It is not even logical or relevant if you read the article.
I for one welcome our genetically engineered bacteria overlords.
...only old people fail to complete their inane meme-based witticisms.
It may be used to cool air marshals as they look for terrorist devices. Please fund me.
The last time i saw a computer assembling itself into a complex shape it didn't need instructions to accomplish that. Gravity is pretty much all it took.
Sample this!
Look, everybody knows that the United States doesn't get involved in terrorism, so why don't you stfu? I mean, seriously, it'd be one thing if there was some real proof of this, but instead we got a bunch of crazy liberals and their bush-hating mass media feeding us bullshit.
Nice try. Come again.
Once we've reached this point, seriously, how close to nanotechnology are we? What are the limits of this technology? It seems to me like bacteria are basically rather sophisticated nanomachines. If this article isn't hyperbole and we can basically program bacteria... well, at first glance it seems like we could just skip the entire hard part of nanomachinery construction and use the nanomachines nature's built for us.
Failing that, I like the idea of a computer-slaved zombified bacteria invasion.
<Steve McQueen> THE ZOMBIES! THEY ARE COMING! THERE ARE MILLIONS OF THEM! THEY'RE RIGHT BEHIND ME!
<Bystander> Um, I don't see anything.
<Steve McQueen> Well they're really small.
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
than being controlled by a machine.
Bacteria of the world, unite!
When is a bioterrorism chemical not a bioterrorism chemical?
When the boogey man does not have it.
Unfortunately the scientists in this case were all reading Asimov and Heinlein, and so believed that all they had to do was be very smart and discover things and much younger beautiful women would unexpectedly materialize and fall in love with them for no apparent reason.
This rather dampened the stories' also-present warnings in their mind.
*shakes fist* ASIMOV, YOUR INABILITY TO WRITE BELIEVABLE THREE-DIMENSIONAL FEMALE CHARACTERS HAS DAMNED THE VERY EXISTENCE OF HUMANITY!
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
Click here for hot amoeba porn! Watch these protoplasmic lovelies get violated by entire gangs of horny human sperm!
HOT FLAGELLUM FETISH PICS XXX CLICK VI@GR4 PHRAMACY SELLS MUCH GOOD PENICILLIN SITES HOME EQUITY!! Watch SLUTTY EXTREMOPHILIC BACTERIUM suck HOT OCEANIC LAVA DUCTS!!
Interclassificationary xxx pics too -- BACILLI and COCCI doing um... not doing anything really because they're asexual, but uh still HOT MICROSCOPIC SEX PICS XXX!
BARELY LEGAL GRAM STAINING!!
Slashdot requires you to wait longer between hitting 'reply' and submitting a comment.
Imagine programming the bugs to spell out your message (a la Contact), and sending them out into the Galaxy by the billions. If they ever found a habitat, they'd reproduce and cover any available surface with your data.
I hope they make bacteria to selectively kill anyone. This world is overfilled with resource wasting humans that would better be fertilizer and more useful in the long run.
please moderate a GAY NIIGER surprise to the polite to bring
So THAT'S what it takes to control viruses on Windows... make it a virus to begin with!
The Peanut Gallery, Ubergeek, Biblically Sober
NCAAbbs.com: Thousands of fans, Hundreds of teams, Just one place
Perhaps, to get your e coli computer to run faster, try exlax rather than penicillin?
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We need to be thanking Stephen Wolfram, the inventor of CELLULAR automata
::digs around for relevant info::
First off, here's the web page for Ron Weiss, the scientist mentioned in the article.
Here's (what I think is) the relevant publication on the topic:
A synthetic multicellular system for programmed pattern formation
Subhayu Basu, Yoram Gerchman, Cynthia H. Collins, Frances H. Arnold and Ron Weiss
Nature 434, 1130-1134 (28 April 2005)
Pattern formation is a hallmark of coordinated cell behaviour in both single and multicellular organisms1, 2, 3. It typically involves cellcell communication and intracellular signal processing. Here we show a synthetic multicellular system in which genetically engineered 'receiver' cells are programmed to form ring-like patterns of differentiation based on chemical gradients of an acyl-homoserine lactone (AHL) signal that is synthesized by 'sender' cells. In receiver cells, 'band-detect' gene networks respond to user-defined ranges of AHL concentrations. By fusing different fluorescent proteins as outputs of network variants, an initially undifferentiated 'lawn' of receivers is engineered to form a bullseye pattern around a sender colony. Other patterns, such as ellipses and clovers, are achieved by placing senders in different configurations. Experimental and theoretical analyses reveal which kinetic parameters most significantly affect ring development over time. Construction and study of such synthetic multicellular systems can improve our quantitative understanding of naturally occurring developmental processes and may foster applications in tissue engineering, biomaterial fabrication and biosensing.
This conference abstract is also pretty darned cool:
Dynamic Control in a Coordinated Multi-Cellular Maze Solving System
Hsu, Allen (Princeton Univ.), Vijayan, Vikram (Princeton Univ.), Fomundam, Lawrence (Univ. of Maryland, Baltimore County), Gerchman, Yoram (Princeton Univ.), Basu, Subhayu (Princeton Univ.), Karig, David (Princeton Univ.), Hooshangi, Sara (Princeton Univ.), Weiss, Ron (Princeton Univ.)
2005 American Control Conference
Control system theory provides convenient tools and concepts for describing and analyzing complex cell functions. In this paper we demonstrate the use of control theory to forward-engineer a complex synthetic gene network constructed from several modular components. Specifically, we present the design and simulation of a synthetic multi-cellular maze-solving system. Here, bacterial cells are programmed to use artificial cell-to-cell communication and regulatory feedback in order to illuminate the correct path in a user-defined maze of cells arranged on a surface. Simulations were used to analyze the system's spatiotemporal dynamics and sensitivity to various kinetic parameters. Experiments with Escherichia coli were carried out to characterize the diffusion properties of artificial cell-to-cell communication based on bacterial quorum sensing systems. The rational design process and simulation tools employed in this study provide an example for future engineering of complex synthetic gene networks comprising multiple control system motifs.
WARNING: Link contains the new goatse. Mod parent down.
Last week, Dr. Drew Endy from MIT gave a talk to the University of Washington's CSE department on Building Biological Systems (PowerPoint slides are here).
At first glance, building biological systems seems like a pretty daunting task. You have all of these As, Ts, Gs, and Cs, and your task is to figure out how to order them to make your system work as specified. And unlike computers that were engineered by humans, the biological mechanisms that work on DNA aren't completely understood.
However, a promising method of engineering biological systems is to abstract them into systems, devices, and parts. One of the interesting things they're doing is building a repository of biological parts, available at http://parts.mit.edu/. These parts use a standardize way of communicating with each other, allowing you to combine them easily.
Using these parts, college students are able to engineer biological systems in a single quarter. In fact, there's been a few intercollegiate biological engineering competitions, linked to from the MIT Parts site.
Yes, you guys have it so rough.
Idiots. If only the Vietnamese could shed a tear for your pain. You know, if fucking Agent Orange hadn't fucking burned their fucking tear ducts.
green /.
...this whole time the non-showering geeks were really trying to take over the world.
And judging by the smell, we're doomed...DOOMED!!
More recent, January 2005, about what they are doing at MIT on synthetic biology.
Here.
Interesting stuff
--
Haven't come up with a sig
...thank the girls' DNA for their incredible boot--uh, beauty. *gets Haymakered in face by female Slashdotters*
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
What happens when the E. Coli bacteria learn how to assemble themselves into a delicious looking Oreo (tm) cookie and mass crapping ensues? Sounds more like bio-terrorism rather than a detector of it.
Mutilation of breasts and female genitalia has been an omnipresent and constant usage throughout history. Insomuch as the soul of torture is male, male organs have always enjoyed the benefit of a species of immunity notwithstanding certain exceptions, a fact that leads to the hypothesis of a fraternal understanding between male victim and male judge-torturer, an understanding that must have been welded into the nascent primordial mind eons ago.
The US govt will piss any amount of money at "Homeland Security". To get a slice of the action you just need to draw some tentative link between your new technology and the "War on terrorism".
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Well, remember what made VHS take off for the home consumers?
Now imagine this same technology applied here.. who needs those rubber blow up dolls, soon we can just buy these huge cement-mix-sized sacks of chemicals, mix them together in a bathtub, and watch them assemble themselves into a girl shaped object!
Online backup with Mozy, sounds like Ozzie, but more!
but I think "bioterrorism detection" is simply a buzzword that helps attract a lot of money. Especially the use of the word "future" implies that they have not really an idea what to use their invention for. It's simply a neat trick. It has been done before, by the way, on a much smaller scale: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v394/n6693/ab s/394539a0_fs.html
Redundant? That would assume his sentiment is obvious. It's disgusting. It's so clearly a troll.
First, imagine all of the cosmetic applications. e.Perfume, where bacteria customize your scent to the mood, time, place, etc. e.Make up, where similar changes happen with ladies makeup. e.Coli, for your customized smell in lavatory situations or those gassy days that you just need to let it out in a public place. e.Antiacne, where bacteria take the role of making you a teenager with nice skin.
Now, that you're the nicest smelling, great skinned, attractor of the opposite sex, you can use your e.birthcontrol to increase sponteneity and maybe even prevent unwanted STD transmission. Maybe even e.extrasensation. Well enough of that.
Now, we adapt this to yeast and give the brewmasters the ultimate in control of their fermentations. Want a perfect high gravity, never stuck fermentation, or other difficult beer done right every time? Use e.Brew.
I better stop. I could go on all morning.
Anyone who isn't confused really doesn't understand the situation.
"Though applications may not come for awhile, the article says that in the future this technology may be used in devices to detect bioterrorism chemicals." Come on, do we really need to have the terrorism angle pointed out for every new technology that comes along??? It's BS to get science funding cause apparently the only R&D budget the U.S. still subsidizes is military and anti-terrorism. I swear, it's only a matter of time before people start trying to claim research into the drag coefficient of sheep over various surfaces (See: http://www.improbable.com/ig/ig-pastwinners.html#i g2003Ignobel Awards ) qualifies as an anti-terrorism expenditure.
- G
Start a happiness pandemic
WARNING eating you computer may cause severe health problems.
now that's what keep the Moore's law in shape
If he had managed to get bacteria to arrange themselves in a bulls-eye or heart pattern, that would be sort of neat. Not really science, and not really useful, but sort of neat.
However, what he has actually done is arrange bacteria in a bulls-eye or heart pattern around some sort of preexisting central source(s). The difference may seem slight to a computer scientist, but it is completely different from a biological point of view. Arrangement around a source is a much easier problem.
Next time, come over to my place. I'll fill your stomach.
I hope they don't take commenting their code too seriously.
Woops, this gene sequence explains what that other gene sequence does but somehow the checksum triggered it to override the other one so now it runs amok eating everything in its path.
If we ever kill ourselves off as the dominant species and those bacteria evolve into a new life form that then looks at its gene sequence, I wonder what they'd think?
'This following section here keys in on seron gas and will grow an extra appendage - a mouth in this case (appendage = growExtraMouth()), ingest it (suckItUp(appendage)), break it down (breakToxinDown(appendage)) and recycle the extra mouth when done (recycleMouth(appendage)). Hopefully the gas doesn't trigger a bus error'....
Wow, sounds like the end of life as we know it.
it might be used in three to five years to make devices that could detect bioterrorism chemicals.
Yeah, did I tell you about my DNA-based Cellular Autonomous Terminator ? It's very good at searching&destroying living organisms, and it already has a stealth mode, night vision and laser-based target designation. Gimme funding and I'll see what I can do about homeland security.
another team led by Weiss showed they could insert DNA into cells to make them behave like digital circuits.
OK, now that sounds interesting. But the March 8 paper is about robustness of feedback loops in biological systems. Directed evolution of a genetic circuit does have logic gates though.
But we don't need life to produce nice regular chemical patterns. See e.g. reaction-diffusion systems. The whole point of synthetic biology would be self-assembly self-replication. So wake me up with sexy headlines when we know how to compile some Turing-complete language to DNA.
Until then, editors should have a rule about anti-terror plugs in articles, e.g. "three times and you're out".
I think these will be widely available before Longhorn...
this now when I almost finished "Inside i386"...
Superb Hosting
Step right up, folks!
Who needs a grain of rice when you can get your name written on a smallest living object - a single cell!
Did you know that "FTW" ("for the win") is a direct translation of "Sieg Heil"?
in a post 9/11 world, all bacteria are a little nervous.
You might find one here
What do we call these things? Lets coin some phrases... Bachines / Bachinery?
Bactronics. Bacnology. Bacware. Bacbots.
Use these in your SF work, and get me a free account.
More then that, when are Disney going to sue researchers for actually making a tiny self-assembling Mickey? When will advertisers make bacteria embedded in foods, that when you throw up, form into an ad?
"The Nobel Prizes earned by Francois Jacob and Jacques Monod are but two of the dozen that by my account are affiliated with E. coli. The overall scientific literature alluding to E. coli now encompasses over 100,000 publications; Google reports almost 3 million hits with 'coli'on the World Wide Web."
J. Monod's book Chance and Necessity is an eye opening read, perhaps dated now, but stimulating in terms of the philosophy of science coming out or genetic research.
Another deeply studied life form Drosophila melanogaster, like e.coli, carries with it such a huge body of work that it, likewise, probably tends to attract and disseminate novel research.
"Academicians are more likely to share each other's toothbrush than each other's nomenclature."
Cohen
FSF already made a program to act like virus for decades. (j/k everybody knows that GPL is not about viral but derivative and communism)
[self dealloc];
Microsoft are said to be very interested in this new technology. They have released a provisional price list of 100 dollars per processor OEM. 269 dollars per processor Retail.
Philip
Signatures are broken
A little off-topic (but interesting) bit of trivia, is that Osama's code-name in the CIA was Tim Osman.
in the future this technology may be used in devices to detect bioterrorism chemicals
I call the authors cynical, beabling on about "Homeland Security" because that's currently a good way to get funding.
I think this is going to be more useful for medicine, as another tool for quicker and more accurate diagnostic tests.
In a paper March 8 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, another team led by Weiss showed they could insert DNA into cells to make them behave like digital circuits."
This is awesome! Now it will be easier for people to 'do the robot.'
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
Doctor : "you've contracted a new strain" .. hey doc, got any acid?"
Patient: "Is there any medication for it"
Doctor : "No, but for fifty thousand jillion dollars your insurance will pick up the tab for the diarreah pills, and you get these really cool pictures of your bacteria forming some groovy colors and shapes."
Patient: "Cool!!
Join the Slashcott! Feb 10 thru Feb 17!
...the ad supported cancer cure - gets rid of tumors and leaves behind skin pigment patterns that help to pay for your treatment. "I'm alive thanks to the guys at GlaxoBayerBurroughsWellcomeSmithKlineBeechamPfizer Pharm!"
Which was a good idea. I cannot speak for my whole country (Belgium, which has problems of its own, btw), let alone _all_ other countries of course. But the US are seen as ignorant navel-gazers who are surprised that terrorist attack them, and go and reinforce what THEY (U.S.) think is right, as a 'police of the world'. Attacking other countries under false pretences, holding prisoners without trial for years, not caring about treaties, not caring about shooting former hostages (Guiliana), just because that is part of their policital agenda. And then the US is surprised that nobody loves them.
So it is nice to see some Americans remember what democracy and freedom it was all about...
Software has had bugs forever. Now the bugs have software.
Imagine a cluster of bacteria!!!!
Singularity: a belief in the "God" idea with the "demiurge" relation inverted.
I wonder if they'd be overclocking tolerant, and if so, I also wonder how well they'd work in a beowulf cluster...
Game! - Where the stick is mightier than the sword!
I keep seeing this big lie printed everywhere, despite the fact that it isn't true. Every time it's posted, there's never a link to a single credible source that backs anything up. If someone makes a claim that big, and no credible source ever discusses it, that should make your bullshit detectors start sounding.
The truth is that the US helped train and equip native Afghans to fight the Soviets. The Afghans we trained were not the Taliban. The Taliban were Islamic students at radical madrassahs during the war. (The name Taliban is the Arabic word for "students"). Bin Laden's group were the "Afghan Arabs," and the name al-Qaeda comes from the Arabic word qaedat bayanat, or "database." Al-Qaeda was original bin Laden's list of Arab fighters in Afghanistan.
The native Afghanis hate the Arabs, and still do. The Arabs didn't particularly care for the Afghans, and really hated the US. The Arabs didn't take money from the CIA, and they wouldn't have. The Afghans were more than happy to do so.
The native Afghan fighters fought against the Taliban in the civil war, and were pushed back to the Tajik frontiers by 2001. Their leader, Ahmed Shah Masood (the Lion of Pansjir) was one of the CIA's top contacts during the war with the Soviets, and was the founder of the Northern Alliance. Bin Laden had him killed 2 days before 9/11 to help keep the Taliban on his side.
Those same Afghans who fought with the Americans against the Soviets were the same Afghans who fought with the Americans against the Taliban.
Yes. You have to have some angle to satisfy the bureaucrats so thay can placate their constituants (not satisfy them, they only satisfy those that voluntarily pay them large sums).
2005-04-28 20:51:05 Bacteria manipulated to form patters (Science,Biotech) (rejected)
The answer to all your problems
Though applications may not come for awhile,
Other news - we will we have to wait a while for correct English / proffreading skills on/.
My botNet will be the envy of the world... milions of blondes with the soul purpose in life to flood the hell out of anyone who dares mock me on irc
Superb Hosting
It is fascinating to me how human beings can be so full of themselves to call a bullseye a "complex shape". Newsflash: The human body and all the mechanisms within it is a "complex shape" that is instigated and maintained by cell-cell communication. To me, this article just shows how far we are behind controlling the actual root processes involved in biological systems. This is like a pre-historic artist in a cave writing with his own feces on the wall of some cliff somewhere, while the complex artistic qualities of nature are all around him. Scientists, what will they think of next.
BOSS: "Your programming is complete SHIT!"
ME: "EXACTLY!"
It's a beowulf cluster
Does this mean I can turn the back of my refrigerator into another web server?
It's called Windows. Infects growing organisms and causes them to die or malfunction. Spreads freely. Is agressive and immune to the usual agents.
I wonder if someone can start programming some bacteria and release them under the GPL?
The article also has pictures of the programmed E. coli.
"Oh, come on, you just pulled those numbers out of your ass."
"Well, that's where I keep my computing resources. If you pass me that bowl of brussels sprouts, I'll show you how far I've gotten on MP3 playback."
On the other hand, the same ability could be used to key bacteria to a specific person, to discharge a certain enzyme or chemical at a set time or duration, then expire, leading to an interesting way to poison a specific person.
That said, said technology is probably pretty far out in the future. I have not read TFA, but I suspect the "programming" is on the level of creating an adder or coding it to follow the route of a maze.
This sig has absolutely no significance and serves only to take up screen space and waste the time of the reader.
This is just wrong.. I believe that bacteria are also living things and are not to be tortured by us. It is time for humans to stop thinking that we are the sole owners of this planet.
Each day we come up with new ideas to torture, kill, humiliate fellow living things. Just because we are capable of things does not mean we should do it. We are also the only living things capable of understanding what we are doing. So time to stop all this.
Where the entire planet is a large computer where the purpose is to work out the meaning of life.
Deleted
literally. What could we do with this? I immediately thought of a problem it might help to solve. How do you get wires into a person's brain, in millions or billions of places, to read and write to individual neurons. We've seen articles recently that talk about using our brains to control devices, or using these probes to read neurons and decode the information. I wonder if these bacteria could be used somehow to grow very tiny wires throughout an entire brain which could provide a was to read and write information to the brain.
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
Scenario --
-- the plans to store carbon dioxide in old oilfields go forward.
-- the CO2 being injected into the old oil fields is, of course, contaminated by bacterial computer components.
-- bacteria, being present in almost every geological structure for a mile or so below the surface, provide both a vast number of components and a rapid rate of evolutionary selection. Earth wakes up.
-- Earth sneezes. We're gone.
in someone else's intestine, a bunch of bacteria tried to learn java but they just shit(themselves);
Wasn't this invented in a lab along time ago? Mimicking evolution using small programs.
You might want to be aware of the fact that planning to commit a crime counts as conspiricy.
6 &cid=12380833. Some important points:
Also, try to work on your trolling. Sure, you've got +2 insightful as I write this, but the guy who posted that the CIA trained bin laden is at +5 http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=14772
Usually speak in generalities, and don't provide links.
When you do provide facts, make them difficult to verify, i.e. claim to have some position where you're in a position to hear privlidged information, or refer to their availablity though something that would take time and effort to verify, like the FOIA
Always make it clear that what you say is 100% true, using words like verified, undisputed, etc..., and be sure to use at least 3 of them each time you do.
If trolling against america, make it clear that you don't hate america, don't support terrorism, then go own to blame america for wearing a short skirt.
At the end, make ad homiem attacks. This is sometimes quite tricky, so make sure that you've used enough emotional rhetoric that you could advocate that babies are tastey and be modded +5 if you choose to do this.
I'd apperciate anyone who is more experienced with Trollology to expand on this.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
> It's not hubris....They hate us because we won't submit to their bloody, violent,
> backwards, worthless piece of crap religion.
And that's not hubris?
Would you prefer your diatribe against the world's billion Muslims be referred to as "arrogance" or "intolerance" or "racism" instead?
It's narrow-minded bigots like you who give America a bad name, and indirectly endanger American lives. Think about it - how many people at work passionately hate the nice, honest guy? How many hate the backstabbing bully?
Think about it.
> But the U.S. eventually rid itself of slavery and the rest of the world followed.
If by "the rest of the world followed", you mean "the US abolished slavery later than Britain, France, Spain, Sweden, Holland, and even Russia", then you're right.
Your post reflects a woeful lack of knowledge about the world outside the US, and of the truly limited role the US played in many of the events you discuss. Such ignorance does not help improve America's image.
Wired has an article on Drew Endy and Tom Knight: Life Reinvented (Issue 13.01 - January 2005). For those interested the article also illustrates how the parts can be assembled as bio bricks.
peterrenshaw ~ Another Scrappy Startup
Every multicellular plant or animal starts from a single cell. Those cells are programmed via their genetic code to assemble themselves into a specific pattern. Research has shown that this is done by means of chemical messages.
What they have done, in this case, is to insert their own instructions. The patterns are primitive, but it's a start. The next step will be to get the cells to differentiate -- that is, to take on different functions (nerve cells, muscle cells, etc.)
Before the first digital computer was made, the logic gate was invented. Think of this as a first step toward creating our own multicellular organisms, or modifying existing ones.
The article says...
:) ) playing the part of terminator says that his outer skin is actually a mass of living tissue.
The research could lead to smart biological devices that could detect hazardous substances or bioterrorism chemicals, scientists say. Eventually, the process might be used to direct the construction of useful devices or the growth of new tissue, perhaps restoring function to a severed spinal cord.
Reading the above line(s) brings to mind the scenes in the movie Terminator , in which Arnold Swasnegger (sorry about the spelling
And then there is the movie matrix in which the computer takes control of every human life including their thought process.
Really scary in one way but if used in the right direction can be a boon to mankind. I guess science is a tool which can be put to constructive as well as destructive purposes. It all depends on the wielder of the tool.
On the Plus side, in the near (or far) future we might have computers which are actually made of billions of bacteria which are used to run softwares. And these computers will most probably be tiny which you can say implant just below your skin for instance. So all you have to do is go to a Information hotspot where there are monitors, keyboards and mice and just start doing your work. You may not have to plug in these devices to your computer as it will be totally wireless. Ofcourse there is a downside to this because it will be easy to track your movements . You will have to forfiet your privacy.
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Think about this. Not only can they communicate via self-created signals, but they can align themselves in configurations based off the encoding of the extra dna. You combine these techniques together, and you have an organic computer!
They could symbolize an ON(1) with red emittance, and OFF(0) with green emittance. When they receive such a signal, they move to a determined angle of their neighbor's position. With enough bacteria you end up with logic gates. With enough logic gates you end up with arithmetic. With enough arithmetic you end up with routines, and so on...
And with enough bacteria altogether, you end up with one amazing light show - and Artificial Intelligence.
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As I was scrolling down the page, I read the headline "Bacteria Made to Behave as Computers
Biotech Science Posted by CowboyNeal" as
"Bacteria Made to Behave as CowboyNeal".