Originally posted by tauristercus
I understand ... but it's one thing to "believe" or "theorize" that the capability exists and another to have them conclusively admit that given a sample of genetic code, that it's now extremely simple to create the organism represented by that genetic code sample.
Sorry, I wasn't clear - this stuff has been doable for a long time, no need for 'belief' or 'theorizing', it's common knowledge. There are many different ways, this is just the most recent.
Synthetic Polio (2002)
The technique used to create the first synthetic polio virus, revealed last week, could be also used to recreate Ebola or the 1918 flu strain that killed up to 40 million people, experts have told New Scientist.
What is even more worrying is that there are easier ways of recreating microbes. You can simply add key genes to a close relative. The key in all cases is knowing the genetic sequence. That raises fundamental questions about the wisdom of publishing the genomes of deadly pathogens on the internet (see New Scientist magazine, 20 July, p 7).
To recreate polio, the team at Stony Brook University in New York bought bits of its sequence from companies that make any piece of DNA to order. At the moment, only short stretches of DNA can be custom-made, so the team had to assemble the genome, which is about 7500 base pairs long, by stitching together sequences of about 70 base pairs. When copies of the genome were made into RNA in a quick lab reaction and put into a vial full of cellular components that mimic a human cell, out came perfectly formed viral particles.
Dramatic as it sounds, this was no scientific tour de force. All the steps are routinely followed in thousands of labs worldwide. That means anyone armed with the knowledge of a virus's sequence, some science training and a few common tools could recreate the virus in a test tube. "What is shocking to people is that, suddenly, it's a reality," says Eckard Wimmer, leader of the team.
The 'easier ways' have been known for much longer, and 'thousands of labs' were able to do this at this point...
Your point stands, though, there is plenty of evidence to suggest they could do this stuff many many years before they made the knowledge public.
[edit on 12-9-2009 by Clickfoot]
