Artificial 'Life' Created

Scientists say they're created a man made virus that can reproduce on it's own within a cell. They say the creation of artificial human or animal life is a long way off and not actually their true intent. Kind of scary, but interesting, too. What do you guys think?

http://www.usatoday.com/news/scienc...life-usat_x.htm

Love, Heather


PS I posted this a few days ago in the News forum, but I think this might be a more appropriate place.

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From my standpoint it's a little hyped. OK, a lot hyped. But that's because I think life has already been made from a lot simpler components:
http://www.siu.edu/~protocell/
http://www.theharbinger.org/articles/rel_sci/fox.html

The ethical considerations of this do need to be examined carefully, but the potential benefits are great.

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"If sound science appears to contradict the Bible, we may be sure that it is our interpretation of the Bible that is at fault." Christian Observer, 1832, pg. 437

"Christians should look on evolution simply as the method by which God works." Rev. James McCosh, theologian and President of Princeton, 1890

Yeah. They didn't create a novel genome, they copied one that already existed. The only thing that I can see that is new and different about it is that they copied the genome in an unusual way.

Not to ruffle any feathers, but this reminds me of a joke:

Mankind finally reaches a point of development where he can easily create life from using the basic ingredients, proteins and lipids and so on. He feels satisfied with his work. He can pop out cows and dinosaurs and snozzberries ("Who ever heard of a snozzberry?") like cookies out of the oven.

So he walks up to God and challenges Him to a Create-Off. God of course accepts the challenge; knock and the door shall be opened unto you after all.

So they find a judge and make the rules and get the logistics out of the way. Then the day of the Create-Off arrives. Man and God are on a green field with an array of instruments and things behind them. When the referree gives them the green light, they both lean down to pick up some dirt, and God looks at man and says, "Oh, you have to use your own dirt."

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Iraq, WMDs, Katrina, NSA warrantless surveillance, Jack Abramoff, Torture, Guantanamo Bay, Science censorship and distortion, Secret CIA prisons, Downing Street memo, Valerie Plame, Nigerian uranium forgeries, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Abu Ghraib, Halliburton no-bid contracts and vanishing tax money, Politically-motivated attorney firings, Harriet Miers cronyism, Gay escort and White House reporter James Guckert/Jeff Gannon, Death of Corporal Pat Tillman

Already done with poliovirus. 2002.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992539

excellent joke BTW

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Jesus said, "If a blind person leads a blind person, both of them will fall into a hole." Thomas 34

"On blind faith they place reliance, what they need more of is science"- MC Hawking

I don't think life has been artificially created, there is no proof that these "protocells" are actually what evolved. Nor is there any proof that they are actually cells at all.

Originally Posted by AlHailThePowerOfJesusName

I don't think life has been artificially created, there is no proof that these "protocells" are actually what evolved. Nor is there any proof that they are actually cells at all.

Two different claims here:

1. Protocells are alive and "artificially" created.
2. Protocells are actually how the first life got started.

As to the first, the protocells are not identical to modern cells, but that isn't the criteria. There is no doubt that they are cells, complete with a semi-permeable membrane that keeps what is inside separate from what is outside. Not only that, but the protocells have a membrane potential exactly like that of a modern nerve cell. Cool, huh?

As to whether protocells are how it happened, if you artificially fossilize protocells and then compare them with the fossils of the first cells, they are identical.
"Structurally, the oldest microfossils have a closer resembalnce to clusters of Fox's microspheres [protocells] than to primitive algae." J Keosian, Life's beginnings -- origin or evolution? in Dose, K Fox, SW, Deborin, GA and Pavlovskaya, TE (eds) The Origins of Life and Evolutionary Biochemistry, Plenum Press, 1974, pp. 221-231. You can view pictures of these fossils and artificially fossilized protocells on page 226 of Science and Creationism, edited by Ashley Montagu, 1982.

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"If sound science appears to contradict the Bible, we may be sure that it is our interpretation of the Bible that is at fault." Christian Observer, 1832, pg. 437

"Christians should look on evolution simply as the method by which God works." Rev. James McCosh, theologian and President of Princeton, 1890

Little bit different this time. It took a much shorter amount of time to create the virus AND this one seems to be fully functional where as the one last year was only semi-functional. Thanks for the link

Love, Heather

PS I agree...good joke

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I will say that if it is an infectious agent:
"Finally, they added the RNA to a soup made from human cells. This enabled the RNA to use the cellular machinery to create the proteins that complete the virus particles. The result was an infectious agent that could destroy cultured human cells and paralyse or kill mice in much the same way as the normal polio virus.",
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992539
then it is as fully functional as a virus can be.What functions do you think it should have? The less time was due to previous research, i.e. the poliovirus being created.

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Jesus said, "If a blind person leads a blind person, both of them will fall into a hole." Thomas 34

"On blind faith they place reliance, what they need more of is science"- MC Hawking

The question of whether or not viruses are actually living organisms is still in hot debate within the scientific community. They do not satisfy all the requirements of "life"