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Scientists Creating Life From Scratch

Posted by samzenpus on from the bring-me-a-brain-igor dept.

Rubberbando writes "MSNBC is running a story about bioengineering organisms to do specific tasks such as produce hydrogen or ethenol. It also goes into the risks and ethical issues of playing with this sort of science. Some of the scientists involved are saying it's more of an art instead of a science due to its 'biohacking' style of experimentation."

3 of 355 comments (clear)

  1. Title misleading? by Swamii · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The article states,
    Though scientists have been combining the genetic material of two species for 30 years now, their work has remained relatively simplistic.

    Combining the genetic material of different species, I think we can all agree, is hardly creating life from scratch.
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  2. Re:Becoming a god by nharmon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Thats funny, because the article doesn't mention anything about creating life accidentally or in a manner than could occur in nature. On the contrary, it mentions that the scientists are "mixing, matching and stacking DNA's chemical components like microscopic Lego blocks in an effort to make biologically based computers, medicines and alternative energy sources."

    If anything, this solidifies intelligent design's viability as an alternate theory. After all, this new life was INTELLIGENTLY DESIGNED!

  3. Re:Becoming a god by AKAImBatman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Or it could be that you didn't read the article, thus you don't realize that this isn't really "From Scratch." In fact, you probably don't realize that the article talks about injecting custom DNA into a pre-existing organism.

    The true test of creating new life "from scratch" is still not even close to coming to frutition.

    But don't let that stand in the way of a good rant. We all love a good rant. :-)

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