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A Step Closer to Creating Artificial Life

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the absolutely-glowing-with-happiness dept.

slick_shoes writes to mention that Italian researcher Giovanni Murtas has taken another step towards creating life in a test tube. "To the untrained eye, the tiny, misshapen, fatty blobs on Giovanni Murtas's microscope slide would not look very impressive. But when the Italian scientist saw their telltale green fluorescent glint he knew he had achieved something remarkable — and taken a vital step towards building a living organism from scratch. The green glow was proof that his fragile creations were capable of making their own proteins, a crucial ability of all living things and vital for carrying out all other aspects of life."

4 of 109 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Great, exciting and all, but ... by Grr · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If this technique (as mentioned in the article) can be used to artificially create fuel it can eliminate oilspills, because fuel can be produced where it is needed. Saves lots of coastal birds.
    If this can be used to create artificial meat (now I'm extrapolating) there's no more need to have hurdes of hamburgers grazing away at acres of former rainforest. Saves many of those endangered but unknown species you're talking about. Maybe it can even be used to grow artifical hardwood.

    Sounds to me this is exactly the sort of research that eliminates the impact of human consumption on the environment by making it more efficient.

  2. For those with Academic Paper subscriptions by starseeker · · Score: 5, Informative

    For those who want more meat, these look like places to start:

    Pier Luigi Luisi, Francesca Ferri and Pasquale Stano Approaches to semi-synthetic minimal cells: a review
    http://www.springerlink.com/content/y218jk71n1k407 85/

    Giovanni Murtas Question 7: Construction of a Semi-Synthetic Minimal Cell: A Model for Early Living Cells
    http://www.springerlink.com/content/9p404l8247968n 72/

    --
    "I object to doing things that computers can do." -- Olin Shivers, lispers.org
  3. Re:Matter knowing it's own existence by BarneyL · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What's/where's the threshold between a blob of carbon+goo, and me? Or at least, are there any theories? Or is all of this stuff discussed only in the philosphical realm?
    You are assuming that self awareness is an all or nothing situation.
    More realistically all living things could be placed on a scale with carbon and goo at the bottom end perhaps small mammals next, then moving up through apes to us.
    And of course finally to dolphins and the white mice who are secretly running the whole experiment.
  4. Re:Great, exciting and all, but ... by gibbdog · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That is a very close minded comment. By the same token I guess everybody working on computer science is wasting their time as they should be studying cancer research and trying to find a cure (and just running folding@home doesn't count).

    The fact is, different people are good at different fields. Just because someone is a biologist or scientist in general does not mean that they studying all fields of biology. It is a highly specialized field with many different niches. Sure, the niches that some fill may not *seem* to be cutting edge high profile making the headlines ground breaking research. However, every bit of info that is documented may be useful someday.

    And by the way... I think being able to build something from scratch is a pretty damn good way of learning out something works and how to help it.