"Artificial life" created as scientist makes synthetic chromosome

Craig Venter, a DNA researcher that had a part in deciphering the human genome, has stuck together 580,000 base pairs of genetic code to create an entirely new and alien chromosome. Based around the Mycoplasma genitalium bacterium (pictured in all its primordial glory), the new chromosome is then implanted into a living cell and renamed as Mycoplasma laboratorium -- don't you just love science jokes? The new "life form" is reliant on the host cell for replication and metabolism so it's not exactly entirely synthetic, but as the DNA is different, it is effectively an artificial form of life. Sounds like the human race's really doomed now: ultimately, all we're doing is setting the robots up with a tag team.

[God @ Oct 7th 2007 11:24AM]

Between this and the robots, I'm gonna have to move to Kobol. I damnit.

[Mister Kay @ Oct 7th 2007 7:47PM]

+10 points for the BSG reference

[phrozunsun @ Oct 10th 2007 12:06AM]

i'm surprised no one's posted:

"I for one welcome our new synthetic chomosomed overlords"

[Rog @ Oct 7th 2007 11:26AM]

Engadget is starting to turn into a scary website.

[Proteus @ Oct 7th 2007 11:34AM]

Cyborgs are coming next...
But hey... what do we humans have to complain about? we've been here for 2 Million years... =]

[DarkAardvark @ Oct 7th 2007 11:39AM]

hey, whats so bad with cyborgs? when i turn 70, i want to be a cyborg and LIVE FOREVER!

[Nex @ Oct 7th 2007 12:43PM]

resistance is futile

[DickHardknocks @ Oct 7th 2007 8:49PM]

Humans are already "Cyborgs" by definition, requiring technology to survive (i.e. - clothing)
However, anyone with a pacemaker, respirator or any other equiptment in their body qualifies as a "cyborg"

[brian @ Oct 7th 2007 11:06PM]

There REALLY are cyborgs now. There is at least 1 person with a fully functional cybernetic arm. She can do nearly everything she could do before with that arm.

[Michael @ Oct 7th 2007 10:57PM]

Shhh! Don't let Hollywood hear you!

[Wwhat @ Oct 7th 2007 11:43AM]

So where are the politicians to stop this nonsense? because if anything is bound to go wrong and maim and kill millions it's people now trying to create life while we still know nothing basically.
In fact, where are their employers to stop this nonsense? where are their relatives to stop them? where are people working or living near them to stop them?
It would be nice if, when a country wants to destroy all life in it, they could develop something that's contained locally and not spreads to the entire planet.
I guess AIDS isn't effective enough.

[754Boy @ Oct 7th 2007 11:54AM]

I smell a new and deadly virus on the horizon!!

[Tonbo @ Oct 7th 2007 9:56PM]

What's funny is that Craig Venter called the development of the first artificial virus back in 2002 "irresponsible" and "inflammatory without scientific justification."

http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/articles/07_02/polio_create.shtml

However, just like dynamite, the potential benefit to humanity is as enormous as its potential for destruction. The ability to make new vectors for gene therapy and to more precisely create custom bacteria that produce our biopharmaceuticals ( as well as bacteria that eat toxic waste, etc...) will streamline nicely with the genome revolution that is taking targeted medical therapy to the next level.

[Jeff P. @ Oct 7th 2007 12:41PM]

Whoa!!! Get a grip. We essentially know NOTHING about what this guy is doing beyond the single paragraph above. Wait till you know more before you declare "the sky is falling!".

[bombastinator @ Oct 7th 2007 1:01PM]

The paradox is that while it is necessary to get the public involved through the media to get this kind of thing halted, the media attention dramatically increases the value of stunts like this. This man has just made his career. He can now get a tenured job with a good salary at almost any university he wants to teach at.

Science, much like the media, is often drawn against it's will towards lowest common denominator of profit. Journalistic/scientific ethics are occasionally simply at odds with short term profits. It's something of a devil's bargain. One can do quick and something lurid, creating significant profit, but these things are frequently bad in the long term for the producer, the industry, and possibly society as a whole.

On one end there are minor things of no real positive value, but no damage either. In science that would be producing yet another pointless redundant research paper thrown into the back of some nowhere scientific journal to boost one's stat points toward tenure. This probably equates in journalism to the very low end of puff pieces.

On the other end there are things like rogue nuclear weapons production research, or possibly that guy who makes up new home made meth recipes which he publishes as a book for huge profit. My personal Journalism pick as a left leaning American is probably that Al Qaeda media guy who was killed recently, or Rupert Murdoch.

[GTMoogle @ Oct 7th 2007 1:02PM]

Here's another take - the biggest threat to humanity is the scaredy cat know-nothings who wail and gnash their teeth over horrible events they only imagine because they know nothing of what they're speaking. Oh woe, politicians, come save us from the scientists! *roll eyes*

None of your scary little scenarios will happen. What WILL happen is our gaining a greater understanding of how life works, and, tangentially, how to better deal with diseases like aids.

There is essentially no chance of scientists creating something in the lab that doesn't already exist in nature. Nature's a huge, uncontrolled lab, and the scientists have plenty of precautions in place that nature never will. If there were some ultimate pathogen that wipes out over half of humanity, I'll put money on it never coming from a human mind. (Safest bet EVAR!)

[Garst @ Oct 7th 2007 2:11PM]

Don't worry. There will be a "nuclear" meltdown at a local nuclear reacter to try contain the virus. And the tape made by a reporter who was tragically eaten, will be "found" to be fake.

[Jake @ Oct 7th 2007 2:25PM]

you should read "prey" by michael crichton.

you would REALLY like it.

[dagamer34 @ Oct 7th 2007 3:01PM]

@bombastinator

He's already made his career through his company. This is just icing on the cake.

[Daryl Herbert @ Oct 7th 2007 3:19PM]

"This man has just made his career."

That is incredibly ignorant. We're talking about DOCTOR CRAIG VENTER, the dude who was instrumental in sequencing the human genome.

[Christopher @ Oct 7th 2007 3:49PM]

@bombastinator

It's Craig Venter! His career was already made! This IS his "tenure" work!

[Christopher @ Oct 7th 2007 3:55PM]

Wow, I think 3 biology majors just posted the same thing in a row...sorry for the repeat.

[sellitman @ Oct 7th 2007 11:08PM]

Maybe they can give artificial intelligence to bush and his crime family before it's really too late?

[Wwhat @ Oct 7th 2007 9:55PM]

Well GTMoogle I'm all comforted by you saying nothing will happen, and surely you make things come true with your magic powers that are powered by your will alone.
Besides what can possibly go wrong when you randomly throw together some DNA and try to make it self-replicating in living organisms? I feel silly now, thanks for setting us straight.

[Sam Winter @ Oct 9th 2007 2:48AM]

If you have to be a Biology/Biochem major to have knowledge of Dr. Venter being the "first" to sequence the human genome and his ongoing project of cataloging all of life's genes/chromosomes, then we have MUCH BIGGER problems than his bacterial research. I mean, I know the average American (where I live)can seems like a complete moron, but not knowing who Craig Venter is? Do people know who Edwin Hubble is? Marie Curie? Richard Feynman? Niels Bohr? Gregor Mendel? Watson and Crick?
Seems we DEFINITELY need to change the requirements for graduating from high school...

[Don @ Oct 8th 2007 11:30AM]

"Here's another take - the biggest threat to humanity is the scaredy cat know-nothings who wail and gnash their teeth over horrible events they only imagine because they know nothing of what they're speaking. Oh woe, politicians, come save us from the scientists! *roll eyes*"

Classic. WWhat, I can imagine you being the person who would have bemoaned the advent of electricity because it disrupted the natural order of day and night. Frackin' luddites.

Every time some new tech comes out, there's someone there who says it has to be 'halted'. Take your place among the anti-GM fooders, the anti-vaccinators, the anti-nanotechies, and the anti-AI folks and sit out the next century or so.

[Wwhat @ Oct 9th 2007 5:47PM]

OK thanks for your remarks don, if someone like you didn't respond then I would have thought I was on drugs or something or slipped into a coma where I dreamed up a world where not 95% of the people are.. 'smart' like you.
But I agree, it's not really an issue, who cares if this human race messes itself up, plus we can always say africans did it when they were having sex with monkeys.

[Splicer261 @ Oct 7th 2007 11:55AM]

this is groundbreaking stuff!

Unbelievable..

Can it reproduce? evolve? become a completely new species?

Better yet, can we control it?

[phrozunsun @ Oct 8th 2007 10:33AM]

i doubt we can control it, since SOME of us can't even spell syNthetic......

[fm @ Oct 7th 2007 12:00PM]

uh oh

[Josh @ Oct 7th 2007 12:53PM]

My thoughts exactly.

After all of the books written about man fucking around with nature and getting screwed you would think that we would stop playing around.

something about pandora's box?

[nih @ Oct 7th 2007 12:10PM]

Please, haters, don't deny me my slimy, greasy biological arm-mounted snotgun.

Because that's where this is headed. Biologically grown snot-guns.

[Karim @ Oct 7th 2007 12:15PM]

1. Identify cheapest, least-complicated small car on market.

2. Remove all parts from car one by one to identify which parts are essential to operation of car.

3. Claim resulting car -- minus hood, windshield, mirrors, doors, etc. -- is NEW CAR.

4. ???

5. Profit!

[GTMoogle @ Oct 7th 2007 12:52PM]

Well, if cars only came from an impenetrable factory and had never before been created any other way, being able to take apart and successfully rebuild the engine is a pretty big step on the way to making cars with features that don't come from the factory. Hurrah, progress!

[Karim @ Oct 7th 2007 6:30PM]

Taking "a pretty big step" *towards* making a new car isn't the same thing as making a new car... Is it progress? Yes. Is it a new life form? Only if removing passages from Beethoven's 9th creates a "new" symphony, and only if chopping the legs off the Venus de Milo creates a "new" work of art.

[esat dedezade @ Oct 7th 2007 12:17PM]

'All your earth are belong to us'

Thats what I DONT want their first words to be.

[Jeff P. @ Oct 7th 2007 12:43PM]

Well, to be precise, it's: "All your base are belong to us"

[Eldiablo @ Oct 7th 2007 12:21PM]

Prince Charles was right - The Grey Goo is going to doom us all!!! :D

[dcny @ Oct 7th 2007 12:33PM]

the end of humans part 1

[hp540 @ Oct 7th 2007 12:41PM]

The Guardian article is still speculation as the report hasn't been published in Nature (yet). That said, I'm looking forward to reading it soon as it seems it's imminent.

Dr. Venter is like the playboy of the scientific world. 50% of PIs absolutely despise him and the other 50% drool over his research and publishing record (*re: the Sargasso sea paper on environmental genomics?)

[NG @ Oct 7th 2007 12:46PM]

maybe our Buffalo University Professor is going to make us a $800000 machine to detect the terror cells next week.. hehe

[t3_slider @ Oct 7th 2007 12:55PM]

It has been known that Craig Venter has been trying to produce artificial life for quite some time now. This is really nothing new (plus, since he hasn't even announced success yet, this is kind of a pointless article). He picked Mycoplasma genitalium because it has a very small genome. I really don't think any killer bugs are coming out of this (or, if they do, it won't be for a VERY VERY long time). He's basically an ego-maniac trying to show the world that he produced artificial life first. We still have a lot to find out about how life works -- E. coli K12 is the most studied organism and about a third of its genes have no characterized function whatsoever. Tailoring bacteria to be a killer strain is a long way off (even if by accident). In fact, since producing an artificial chromosome is so difficult and error-prone, the mutations introduced and gene segments deleted would probably make this "artificial" bacterium less fit. If you infect a human with it it probably wouldn't get very far.

I'd be more worried about drug resistant strains of bacteria and viruses (HIV in particular) than a killer bug emerging from this project.

[Addy Osmani @ Oct 7th 2007 12:56PM]

Here is something I don't quite understand...

Replicating DNA and organisms for the purposes of generating new tissue cells and replacement organs for US is useful.

Creating new forms of life benefits the human race how, exactly?

[Josh L @ Oct 7th 2007 2:27PM]

Imagine a manufactured strain of airborne bacteria that eats smog, and is released over a polluted city like LA (or installed in cars' catalytic converters).

Or a lifeform that, when introduced into water, would separate the hydrogen and oxygen, creating a new and efficient way to generate fuel for fuel cells.

Or, a more mundane example, a lifeform that eats mildew and soap scum and could be sold as a one-step bathroom cleaner (or even integrated into grout and tile mixtures, making them immune to scum).

[Reader @ Oct 7th 2007 2:49PM]

We didn't jump straight to the motor car after making the wheel, there were some steps along the way. This is the same deal. We can't just go straight to the fountain of youth or regenerating limbs if we don't know how life works in general.

On top of that, there's the possibility that for regeneration to work we would need something like this to recode our DNA. Especially if stem cell research stays as locked down as it is currently.

[nikola @ Oct 7th 2007 11:33PM]

"Imagine a manufactured strain of airborne bacteria that eats smog, and is released over a polluted city like LA (or installed in cars' catalytic converters)."

Imagine that manufactured strain is so successful it eliminates smog in LA altogether, and, starved of its food source dies off, leaving a only a small population of mutated bacteria that eats other "pollutants"...like carbon dioxide.

With the elimination of the non-mutated population they have no competition and spread across the globe like wild-fire, exploding in population density...leading to even more mutations. These newer mutations like to stick to things, like trees, leaves, plants, etc, taking in all the carbon dioxide they can.

In a few very short weeks 90% of all plant life is starved to death. The world quickly deteriorates into civil war, with the survivors all having one thing in common..... cannibalism.

[Don @ Oct 8th 2007 5:25PM]

"In a few very short weeks 90% of all plant life is starved to death..."

I thought someone said to not tell Hollywood?

[tony @ Oct 7th 2007 12:57PM]

Does it taste like chicken?

[CharlieX @ Oct 7th 2007 1:21PM]

Yes. this particular chromosome is the Chicken Flesher. Makes anything taste like chicken. YUMMY! imagine a field of chicken flavored broccoli.

[Darkest Daze @ Oct 7th 2007 1:03PM]

Every time I read something like this, I can't help but think "killer bees".