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Artificial life
- Thread starter Nemesiah
- Start date
Not sure if being a second year biology undergrad makes me a biologist just yet, but I'll put in my two cents none the less. 
This 'artificial life' is essentially a cell which has an artificially synthesised genome, which if I remember correctly was essentially made of bits of DNA they shopped around for.
What's special about this is that it shows that you can create a genome from scratch, without any special input, then stick it into a cell. Thus removing the need for a deity to 'spark' life into being. Plus it means that it is possible for an organism to do exactly what you want it to, whereas at current we can only add or remove certain genes from a genome, which results in a lot of genes which you don't necessarily want there.
There's no real obvious threat of pandemics and whatever, however there is the possibility that a synthesised organism may do something we don't expect it to do, as is the worry with GM crops, or that organisms could be synthesised as weapons.
Venter is right in my opinion when he says that worries that this development will or is likely to lead to the destruction of mankind are overstated, by several orders of magnitude.
This 'artificial life' is essentially a cell which has an artificially synthesised genome, which if I remember correctly was essentially made of bits of DNA they shopped around for.
What's special about this is that it shows that you can create a genome from scratch, without any special input, then stick it into a cell. Thus removing the need for a deity to 'spark' life into being. Plus it means that it is possible for an organism to do exactly what you want it to, whereas at current we can only add or remove certain genes from a genome, which results in a lot of genes which you don't necessarily want there.
There's no real obvious threat of pandemics and whatever, however there is the possibility that a synthesised organism may do something we don't expect it to do, as is the worry with GM crops, or that organisms could be synthesised as weapons.
Venter is right in my opinion when he says that worries that this development will or is likely to lead to the destruction of mankind are overstated, by several orders of magnitude.