Synthetic DNA About To Yield New Life Forms

mlimber sends along a Washington Post story about the immanence of completely artificial life: "The cobbling together of life from synthetic DNA, scientists and philosophers agree, will be a watershed event, blurring the line between biological and artificial — and forcing a rethinking of what it means for a thing to be alive... Some experts are worried that a few maverick companies are already gaining monopoly control over the core 'operating system' for artificial life and are poised to become the Microsofts of synthetic biology. That could stifle competition, they say, and place enormous power in a few people's hands."

Comments

Re:Obgl.

[SJ2000]

Or rather, tho$e that created them.

Re:Not completely artifical

[DaedalusHKX]

Actually I've read a couple of medical papers awhile back that stated that partially developed scurvy is not common but still exists in "our society", mainly because of "not enough" ascorbic acid intake.

Back to our ORIGINAL SUBJECT:

HOW is what I said any different than worrying about placement of testicles?!? The original parent poster to my reply said that testicles were placed in a bad place for "survival", etc.
I find the lack of ability to naturally syntesize ascorbate/ascorbic acid to be a FAR greater threat to survival than externally mounted reproductive organs. Perhaps I'm just mistaken. Since animals that can synthesize ascorbate are living all over the globe, but modern humans live only near supplies of vitamin C, be they natural or artificial in construction. Most are told "its good for you" but aren't aware just how BAD its absence can be.
This is no different to the idiots scared of skin cancer who yet suffer from Vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D, however, can be synthesized by proper exposure to the elements that help said synthesis (sunlight, et al.)
Man can live without testicles, but without proper amounts of the various vitamins, man doesn't live long or well. In fact, without those vitamins, humanity would not have lived very long, but has done just fine with externally mounted testicles.
That was my point, it was thoroughly missed out by the typical individuals who didn't bother to read up on the comment I was replying to. I'm not surprised.