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Biologist (Almost) Creates Artificial Life
Aditya Malik writes "Wired has an interesting story up about how a lab led by Jack Szostak, a molecular biologist at Harvard Medical School, is building 'protocells' from artificial molecules which are very close to satisfying the conditions for being 'alive.' 'Szostak's protocells are built from fatty molecules that can trap bits of nucleic acids that contain the source code for replication. Combined with a process that harnesses external energy from the sun or chemical reactions, they could form a self-replicating, evolving system that satisfies the conditions of life, but isn't anything like life on earth now, but might represent life as it began or could exist elsewhere in the universe.' This obviously raises some questions about creationism, not to mention some scary bio-research-gone-wild scenarios."
I know they aren't really Von Neuman machines, but that phrase always puts me in mind of a replicator apocalypse...
Admit it. You post strawman arguments as AC so you get modded Insightful for refuting them, rather than Troll
Life or not, I for one will not be welcoming our fatty molecule overlords.
That seems slightly ironic in this particular case, simply because these protocells were "created" by this Jack fellow. I don't believe in Jack.
He tried to create a phallic looking creature.
Similes are like metaphors
That's the sound of 100,000 /.ers trying to come up with the perfect obscure movie reference. We'd better get out of here before it gets ugly.
Too late...
Failure to follow this advice may result in non-deterministic behavior.
Shortly after their creation the cells formed a new religion declaring their white coated man God. Also that their world/petri dish was in fact flat and that on Sunday their God did in fact rest/got drunk and watched football.
"Attempted murder, now honestly, what is that? Do they give a Nobel Prize for attempted chemistry?"
- Sideshow Bob.
The enemies of Democracy are
Combined with a process that harnesses external energy from the sun or chemical reactions, they could form a self-replicating, evolving system
It's called a Lava Lamp.
Why does this raise any questions about creationism? To the best of my knowledge, there are essentially no creationists who argue that life was created by humans or any other intelligent organisms(unless they are squirming around on the stand, trying to avoid the establishment clause). And nothing in any current evolutionary hypothesis precludes artificially constructed organisms any more than they preclude artificially constructed computers and hammers. The fact that we can, almost, produce simple organism analogs doesn't mean anything one way or the other, though I suspect that it will be a very convenient mechanism for exploring the capabilities of (relatively) low complexity structures, and will provide the opportunity to do evolutionary experiments from well defined baselines.
As for the bioresearch gone wild scenarios: all advances in knowledge create the potential for trouble; but I suspect that it will be quite some time before any synthetic organism becomes much of a threat. The world outside is an incredible hostile place, crawling with microbes that have been slitting each others' throats in innumerable horrid ways for millennia. The interaction will be something like this:
[Synthetic wimp organism]:"Hi, I'm synthetic."
[Hardbitten wild bacterium]:"I fucking killed my own family over a nanogram of glucose."
[SWO]:*gulp*
[HWB]:"Hey, look, one of the thousands of antibiotic compounds secreted by fungi as part of the brutal chemical war of all against all."
[SWO]:*Dies horribly*
What, Canadian? Yeah, we knew that already, eh?
Male and female humans can rarely interact successfully (or at least satisfactorily).
Oh boy, are you doing it wrong!
Speaking of self replicating, I had sex last night with a supermodel (almost). Well, I guess that depends on what is meant by almost. Also, the definition of supermodel might be relevant here 8^)
Look where all this talking got us, baby.
Hey, I try to win races against my 5 year old child all the time. I almost won the other day.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
AND have a soul. can a molecular biologist create a soul?
_ In Egypt Networks: Network Solutions with a Twist
"As a Slashdot discussion on any scientific topic grows longer, the probability of it devolving into creationist-bashing fest approaches one."
vote it into office?