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Scientists Create Bacteria With Expanded DNA Code
perryizgr8 (1370173) writes "Biologists have managed to create a bacteria with DNA made of the usual A-T, C-G plus an artificial third base pair, thus encoding more data in DNA. From the article: 'The scientists behind the work at the Scripps Research Institute have already formed a company to try to use the technique to develop new antibiotics, vaccines and other products, though a lot more work needs to be done before this is practical. The work also gives some support to the concept that life can exist elsewhere in the universe using genetics different from those on Earth. “This is the first time that you have had a living cell manage an alien genetic alphabet,” said Steven A. Benner, a researcher in the field at the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution in Gainesville, Fla., who was not involved in the new work.'"
I for one, welcome our new bacteria overlords.
We've seen this before, haven't we?
Ezekiel 23:20
If you can code two extra genes, dozens, even millions more aren't either untenable or impossible. Artificial base pairs may end up becoming great suites and symphonies of behavior.
Alternately, bio-engineering becomes the discipline where YOU're the actual compiler.
make me
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
'The scientists behind the work at the Scripps Research Institute have already formed a company to try to use the technique to develop new antibiotics, vaccines and other products.'
Step 1: Use public funds to do innovative research into expanding the genetic code in microbes.
Step 2: Patent everything to make sure no one else can build on your discoveries.
Step 3: Create a company that promises all the keywords for a biotech e.g. antibiotics, vaccines, etc.
Step 4: Get bought out
Step 5: ? Profit was Step 4.
Remember when science was about discovery and standing on the shoulders of giants?
So does this bacteria grown into a supermodel with orange hair?
In a hundred years, there will be nothing but abandoned cities under flood waters. Humans and many other animals will be dead. But there will be some bacteria with this extra base pair.
In a hundred million years, there will be no other evidence we were even here. Perhaps a future intelligent species will look back and wonder why some bacteria has more DNA than other life. They will make many interesting theories. Some will theorize that a previous intelligent species created the third base pair. And those that do will be called crackpots.
Democracy Now! - your daily, uncensored, corporate-free
This would also prevent beneficial mutations, by the same token
You mean "cue"?
Crimey
You mean "cue"?
No, don't presume he is uneducated. He literally wants people to make a list of salient apocalyptic predictions for him.
Dr. Romesberg dismissed concern that novel organisms would run amok and cause harm, saying the technique was safe because the synthetic nucleotides were fed to the bacteria. Should the bacteria escape into the environment or enter someone’s body, they would not be able to obtain the needed synthetic material and would either die or revert to using only natural DNA.
Yeah, and we all know how well that worked out with the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park.
Thanks, Obama!
So you are claiming the scientists are all working together, across national boundaries in adversarial countries, falsifying their evidence so well that it can pass peer review without any single one exposing the fraud and collecting their Nobel prize and untold riches in the process, so they can collect money from you? Do you have any idea how ridiculous you sound? You are dismissing science because of what you assume will happen in the political world based on their findings. It's as bizarre as saying germ theory is a hoax because you don't want to subsidize medicare or medicaid. People like you are more dangerous than climate change.
For an entertaining take, see Greg Egan's Distressed novel, which has a whole subplot about a rich family whose members have their entire DNS replaced by a "translated" equivalent made of artifical, new nucleobases, complete with updated enzymatic machinery. As a side-effect it turns their skin jet black and allows them to survive on a diet of tire rubber.
They then plan to release a superbug on their fellow humans (it cannot affect them since they have become, in effect, complete aliens) and keep the Earth for themselves.
Maybe we deserve this world ?
I agree - one need not use "belief", akin to faith "the evidence of things unseen", to accept something that is visibly trending factual data. Or to notice that high tide on the Jersey Shore has been eating away the beaches and moving closer to the houses. These are objectively observable phenomena.that CAN be seen with the naked eye. Maybe the cities won't be under *deep* flood waters, but I would advise against buying an apartment in Manhattan's Battery Park City.
This would be most inert DNA.
Binary is base 2 (0,1), DNA is base 4 (A,T,G,C), and this new version would be base 6 (A,T,G,C,X,Y). The data storage is astronomically more.
Brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.