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Writing Genetic Code
An anonymous reader writes "The Globe and Mail is reporting on another group of researchers delving into the field of 'synthetic biology.' The project stemming from the efforts of two biology labs in British Columbia and Maryland is attempting to create the first synthetic life form. From the article: 'The project is being spearheaded by U.S. scientist Craig Venter, who gained fame in his former job as head of Celera Genomics, which completed a privately-owned map of the human genome in 2000. Dr. Venter, 59, has since shifted his focus from determining the chemical sequences that encode life to trying to design and build it: "We're going from reading to writing the genetic code," he said in an interview.'" This is certainly not the first group to venture into this territory.
Bacteria are already used to synthesize organic materials by reprogramming their DNA. For example, some antivirals and antibiotics are manufactured this way; the desired pattern is injected into the bacteria's genome and it will then produce that pattern. Venter's project is really just an extension of that approach.
I have doubts as to the likelihood of success using present science; in twenty years, perhaps it will be possible, but today it's really casting about in the dark. Even something as elemental as a bacteria is an incredibly complex thing, with a sophisticated genome and complex organelles working in biochemical harmony to reproduce, to "mate" by conjoining with other bacteria, and to adapt and thrive in a very wide variety of conditions.
Bacteria have been around for billions of years and, as Stephen Jay Gould put it, we are living in the Age of Bacteria. In a few short years it seems unlikely that even brilliant scientists can recreate these things. Modify some, yes, but completely create from scratch something that is going to be viable--well, that's going to be interesting to see.
That said, if they can pull it off the possibilities of its use, for good or evil, are endless. They can be encoded to synthesize all sorts of compounds, eat nasty pollutants, generate fossil fuels, attack disease microbes, or be diseases themselves. Luckily, the human body has a pretty comprehensive immune system that will adapt to just about anything except retroviruses like AIDS that reprogram the immune system itself.
it's = "it is"; its = possessive. E.g., it's flapping its wings.
But I don't think you can call an organism synthetic if all you are doing is injecting synthetic DNA into a pre-existing organism.
Can you call a piece of (traditional computer) software your own (i.e. synthetic) if it mostly runs API functions provided by the (pre-existing) OS or a third-party library?
We have a very bad track record when it comes to "our world" and "technology we invent".
Far as I'm concerned, "God" doesn't enter into it. I don't think we've developed nearly enough of an understanding about our world or microbiology...to even think about this. Our planet is a pretty complex machine, and we're stuck with it for the moment (and to all the escapists, no, I don't want to hear about your colonization ideas. Let's feed, clothe, and shelter our fellow humans before we send the most elite off to establish a "perfect" world...otherwise Earth becomes the home of the poor and disadvantaged.)
Call me crazy, but this sounds even worse than the whole nanomachine "grey goo" problem. "Grey goo" scenarios mostly revolved around incompetence (ie, we know how to design a perfect nanobot but someone skips "step number 54", or keys in an extra zero.) Here, we've got not only incompetence but also "we're not really sure how this all works." Oh, and to top it all off? The little buggers could just spontaneously mutate all on their own, because biology isn't a perfect machine. Lovely!
Please help metamoderate.