artificiallife

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  • J. Craig Venter Institute

    Human-made bacteria has the tiniest genome ever

    by 
    Jon Fingas
    Jon Fingas
    03.25.2016

    Believe it or not, creating artificial life (albeit based on existing species) isn't new. However, scientists have managed a particularly unusual feat: they've built synthetic bacteria that has the smallest known genome of any lifeform... ever. Their modification of Mycoplasma mycoides has just 473 genes, or so few that it likely couldn't survive and reproduce if you shrank the genome further. The trick was to do a better job of determining which genes were essential. Many of those that weren't deemed necessary in the past turned out to be half of a vital pair, giving researchers a good sense of what they could afford to cut.

  • Digitally simulated worm wriggles for the first time (video)

    by 
    Jon Fingas
    Jon Fingas
    12.26.2013

    It's relatively easy to simulate life in an abstract sense, but it's tricky to do that cell by cell -- just ask the OpenWorm Project, which has spent months recreating a nematode in software. However, the team recently cleared an important milestone by getting its virtual worm to wiggle for the first time. The project now has an algorithm that triggers the same muscle contractions you'd see in the real organism, getting the 1,000-cell simulation to "swim" in a convincing fashion. There's still a long way to go before OpenWorm has a complete lifeform on its hands, mind you. The group has to introduce code for a nervous system, and performance is a problem -- it takes 72 hours to emulate one-third of a second's worth of activity. If all goes well, though, you'll eventually get to play with the worm through a browser. In the meantime, you can check out the digital critter's motion in a video after the break.