Artificial life will be created 'within months' as genome experts claim vital breakthrough

This is a story I saw on the Drudge Report.

Scientists are only months away from creating artificial life, it was claimed yesterday.

Dr Craig Venter – one of the world’s most famous and controversial biologists – said his U.S. researchers have overcome one of the last big hurdles to making a synthetic organism.

The first artificial lifeform is likely to be a simple man-made bacterium that proves that the technology can work.

But it will be followed by more complex bacteria that turn coal into cleaner natural gas, or algae that can soak up carbon dioxide and convert it into fuels. They could also be used to create new vaccines and antibiotics.

The prediction came after a breakthrough by the J Craig Venter Institute in Maryland. Researchers successfully transferred the DNA of one type of bacteria into a yeast cell, modified it and then transferred it into another bacterial cell.

www.dailymail.co.uk...

This is very interesting. I will comment more after I have soaked it all in.

looks like they got the go ahead to make it public after all these years...

Beat me to it, i was just working on a post on this!

Here's another article on it.
Science Daily Article

LoL one step closer to a zombie apacolypse.

I sure hope they are more organised than they appear.

They have created clones for many years, so why would this be the first successful attempt at a synthetic organism? If this is public technology, imagine the black ops stuff.


[edit on 22-8-2009 by Copernicus]

I love you... Mini- Me.

reply to post by Wertdagf


Maybe there needs to be a survival thread on "what to pack in your zombie apocalypse bag". It always seems like a shotgun (BOOMstick) is very important.

Reading the article, it wasn't bacteria that they're talking about soaking up the CO2, it was algae. My question is that most algae already do this, so why would they need to invent a synthetic lifeform to do the same function?

I'm going to buy a boomstick.

reply to post by WickettheRabbit


I just read the Zombie Survival Guide. Pretty good stuffs there!

reply to post by Copernicus


because clones arent synthetic life, they are normal organic matter manipulated to produce an exact copy.....


Artificial life is purely synthetic, operating in a manner that mimics organic proccesses

reply to post by ManBehindTheMask


I agree, I think it's being over-hyped just a tad bit. That, or what I think of as "artificial life" is completely different than what they do.

Isn't it just a way of growing organisms based on the DNA the scientists want?

reply to post by badmedia


Thats just it im not sure, im not a biologist by any means. What is interesting tho to me is if how you make a non organic organism behave like an organic one , that boggles my mind....


Also we know how to kill organic organisms and viruses.....what happens when you create a non organic organism that may or may not abide by the laws that organic ones have to adhere to or die?

What stops it from going out of control, what keeps it in check?How predictable is it? how do you kill it?

WAAAAY CREEPY