"Artificial life" created as scientist makes synthetic chromosome
By Conrad Quilty-Harper 
posted Oct 7th 2007 11:16AM
posted Oct 7th 2007 11:16AM
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.
Between this and the robots, I'm gonna have to move to Kobol. I damnit.
+10 points for the BSG reference
i'm surprised no one's posted:
"I for one welcome our new synthetic chomosomed overlords"
Engadget is starting to turn into a scary website.
Cyborgs are coming next...
But hey... what do we humans have to complain about? we've been here for 2 Million years... =]
hey, whats so bad with cyborgs? when i turn 70, i want to be a cyborg and LIVE FOREVER!
resistance is futile
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"
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.
Shhh! Don't let Hollywood hear you!
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.
I smell a new and deadly virus on the horizon!!
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.
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!".
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.
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!)
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.
you should read "prey" by michael crichton.
you would REALLY like it.
@bombastinator
He's already made his career through his company. This is just icing on the cake.
"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.
@bombastinator
It's Craig Venter! His career was already made! This IS his "tenure" work!
Wow, I think 3 biology majors just posted the same thing in a row...sorry for the repeat.
Maybe they can give artificial intelligence to bush and his crime family before it's really too late?
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.
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...
"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.
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.
this is groundbreaking stuff!
Unbelievable..
Can it reproduce? evolve? become a completely new species?
Better yet, can we control it?
i doubt we can control it, since SOME of us can't even spell syNthetic......
uh oh
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?
the end of humans part 1
Please, haters, don't deny me my slimy, greasy biological arm-mounted snotgun.
Because that's where this is headed. Biologically grown snot-guns.
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!
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!
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.
'All your earth are belong to us'
Thats what I DONT want their first words to be.
Well, to be precise, it's: "All your base are belong to us"
Prince Charles was right - The Grey Goo is going to doom us all!!! :D
maybe our Buffalo University Professor is going to make us a $800000 machine to detect the terror cells next week.. hehe
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?
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).
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.
"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.
"In a few very short weeks 90% of all plant life is starved to death..."
I thought someone said to not tell Hollywood?
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?)
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.
Does it taste like chicken?
Yes. this particular chromosome is the Chicken Flesher. Makes anything taste like chicken. YUMMY! imagine a field of chicken flavored broccoli.
Every time I read something like this, I can't help but think "killer bees".
Im allergic so all bees are killer to me...
Does this mean that we now have access to synthetic down syndrome?
Yes, and it will create an industry of synthetic CHOCOMUT DONUTS AND PIZZA PARTIES!!!
WHoa! That's news to share!
The Venter Zaibatsu. A huge international conglomerate that in reality controls the world's economy. The Zaibatsu's stock value sky rocketed after the success of their "Mycoplasma Laboratorium" project.
Following the M-Virus disaster, the Venter Zaibatsu was the only big time player remaining...
bla bla..
What's the big deal... I figured out how to do this when I was about 11....
Sure, and while you're at it, mix it up with some of the 1918 killer flu they recovered from an Army victim in Alaska. WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?
God says you have to supply your own materials if you want to create life.
Altering what he has made is not creating life.
And the Global Warming tie in is so expected, yet so unrelated, it's laughable.
God also doesn't exist. Idiot.
@ MDB:
This guy is obviously a troll, but being an asshole yourself doesn't strike me as necessary... And the fact that your comment was High Ranked is frankly saddening to me.
As a 'live-and-let-live' kinda guy, I've always been baffled by otherwise perfectly rational atheists who are understandably opposed to being evangelized at, but then feel the need to blow a gasket and start preaching at any religious person they meet.
"being an asshole yourself doesn't strike me as necessary..."
He's not an asshole, he's merely describing his diagnose using scientific terms.
"As a 'live-and-let-live' kinda guy, I've always been baffled by otherwise perfectly rational atheists who are understandably opposed to being evangelized at, but then feel the need to blow a gasket and start preaching at any religious person they meet."
Rationalists are attempting to curb a tide of fundamentalism with counter-propaganda. Luckily, it seems as though some headway is being made, combined with the wonderful foibles that the religiously minded are performing lately.
While the statement above certainly could have been phrased better, and the "idiot" was gratuitous (the OP showed that just fine by himself) it doesn't change the likelyhood of the first part of the statement.
Telling people why god-belief is irrational isn't preaching. It's teaching.
All of us idiots can argue whether God exists or no...but the point remains valid, it is not really his inventions. Something similar to some of us do for living, take content in public domain, modify it, and sell it as yours.
Now what I am really hoping for is that when he's going to open his own Umbrella Corporation and where in the hell is this Racoon city
so is this like a symbiote? like from SPIDERMAN
Please, enough with all the 'Its gunna kill us' BS, just for once appreciate what we have achieved and what we can do.
It sounds like playing God to me...
OH MY GOD!
its the flood!
damn... i need to stop playing halo 3...
Can someone prove to me immediately that God or some sort of designer DOES NOT exist?
That goes both ways, just so you know. Hence it being called "faith" either way.
Sorry, but the burden of proof lies on your end not ours.
I will as soon as you prove to me that Thor, Zeus, and the pink teapot orbiting the Earth outside the range of our telescopes don't exist. The fact is, it's up to the person making the claim to back it up. If he can't, the only intellectually honest position is skepticism.
No, none of us can prove right away that there isn't a God. It is something that only rationalism can do for you. That is why there are so many religions in this world; some follow a book, while others refuse.
im so sick of these god fanboys
"Can someone prove to me immediately that God or some sort of designer DOES NOT exist?"
Of course, once you prove Santa does not exist.
Keep in mind I've prepared mind boggling amounts of evidence about how he CAN, in fact, deliver all presents in one night, ranging from quantum physics, black holes, string theory and time travel.
Dan RULES!
Lol, cry fundies. Cry evangelists. Cry chicken littles. The future is a-comin' and there's nothing you can do about it. You guys think because you've read a few sci fi novels and books that you're more prepared to dictate where science should head instead of the people who actually spent their lives studying it.
I remember reading somewhere that the older you get, the more unnatural every new thing seems to you. This site must carry a pretty old reader base.
"... that you're more prepared to dictate where science should head instead of the people who actually spent their lives studying it."
You have a point. Similarly, spending your life studying science doesn't qualify you to dictate to others whether or not they should believe in a higher power, or any other spiritual matter: Spirituality is independent of education, upbringing, or career choice.
Bringing up vague, knee-jerk-reaction statements like "Scientists are playing God!" and so on doesn't do much to help the image of Religion. But your sophomoric schoolyard taunts make you look juvenile; holier-than-thou attitudes aren't well countered by smarter-than-thou ones.
I've seen maybe 3 comments in this thread that have anything at all to do with Evangelicals questioning the decisions of science. Most of the rest of them are dealing with what impact this will have on things that taste like chicken. But feel free to low-rank me for defending people who believe in Something Bigger Than Them; I realize this is taboo on the interwebs, and we must keep up appearances.
I'm in your Laboratories, stealing your Mycoplasma laboratorium =]
haha nice "I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER?" reference.
Reading all the amazing science involved with creating artificial life, one question keeps coming back to haunt me: how does it taste like.
Please note, this news ISN'T official... yet.
as long as this thing doesnt go T-virus on us i really could care less about what this guy does. The UK scientists making human-cow hybrid embryos is a much bigger problem
if venter or his ilk is one day successful at creating a self-sustaining, self-replicating organism, what does this mean for theist religions? how could one possibly reconcile, in a rational manner, such a discovery with the creationist underpinnings of these religions?
the experiment brings up an interesting philosophical/theological dilemma.
Now I personally believe that it would be impossible to create a "self-sustaining, self-replicating organism" that you speak of...but I'm not going to shut the door to the idea. Until then...I don't think "creationists" really have too much to worry about.... (myself being one of them)
What if we could create such a life that can maybe reproduce and turn compounds into something that can aid us.
I'm thinking big scale..absolutely big..say, planets?
Imagine creating and dispersing such beings that could maybe help teraform mars??
crazy??
God exists..
God = Time
Existed since the begining of the universe and will till it's end.. Time is everywhere, all powerful, eternal, and through time life formed, plants became to be..
And you heard the expression, everything happens as god wills, well everything happens according to time!
So time = GOD .
It has no physical form, simply exists..and one who can control time? will be a god!
TIME = DONUT
Redefinition of common terms to fit your personal wish of what you hope "god" means is a logical fallacy...
But hey, that probably never stopped you before!
TIME = DONUT
Redefinition of common terms to fit your personal wish of what you hope "god" means is a logical fallacy...
But hey, that probably never stopped you before!
I think we need to find intelligance on this planet, before we go and make some artifical. That's like 'Blue Raspberry' making 'Strawberry' flavor.
I can't believe this hasn't been said yet. However, to CYA I'll begin with...I, for one, welcome our genetically engineered overlords.
There is mistake in the title. 'synthetic' not 'sythetic'
uh hee hee - he said genital. uh hee-hee, hee hee
Wow, you people are ignorant. First of all, to the genius who said this "stunt" will help Craig Venter get tenure or allow him to teach at any university he wishes, might want to get a clue and learn some facts. Craig Venter left the NIH during the inefficiency of the Human Genome Project and sequenced the genome with Celera 7 years ago. The idiot journalist who wrote this article cleverly downplayed that historic fact by stating he "had a part" in that landmark feat. If all of you are basing your "scientific knowledge" on journalism, you are screwed. Since 2000, Venter has been responsible for numerous scientific breakthroughs. He doesn't need, nor would he ever want, help getting a teaching job. Also, those of you who studied English or Political Science in college should refrain from commenting as you obviously don't realize the basics of recombinant DNA technology, which is what this work is based upon. Many scientists are eager to "play God", but fortunately we will never get there. The more we research, the more we realize how impossibly complex the systems under study are. If you don't have a scientific background, learn from somebody who does, or do the hard work yourself and take the necessary coursework. Otherwise, you are in no position to evaluate this information, and are no more qualified than the ignorant journalists who blog this stuff.
Yes, some components are irreducibly complex. I was recently introduced to Darwin's Black Box and I found it very instructive.
venter is the founder and former president of celera genomics, a for-profit company who "beat" the publicly funded human genome project in sequencing human dna. they did so partially by using public information from the hgp. he loves publicity and enjoyed announcing that celera had sequenced human dna well before the hgp.
Hm... interesting. Now if only I could find a way to get a sample of this to the lab, my research could be complete!!
Looks like another example of intelligent design...and not evolution. Oh no! Flame bait!
Wow, the prospect of something like this, the first baby steps is both very scary and exciting. I would bet that none of us will see anything good or bad come out of this in our life time though. But I am also a pecimist when it comes to tech. I mean shouldn't we be on other planets by now? Of course not, no money in it.
- K
Alien chromosome takes over the world! I blame Vista!
I, for one, welcome our artificial overlords