Big leap in bio-engineering: scientists simulate an entire organism in software for the first time e

Entire organism in software for the first time ever!

Scientists at Stanford University and the J. Craig Venter Institute — remember the Human Genome project — have simulated an entire organism in software for the first time ever.

Using a 128-node computing cluster, a team of scientists led by Stanford professor Markus Covert incorporated data from more than 900 scientific papers and 1,900 experiments to simulate every molecular interaction and the effects of all 525 genes of the smallest known free-living bacterium: the parasite Mycoplasma genitalium.

And, yes, that bacteria lives right where its name suggests.

This is revolutionary to say the least and very, very interesting. This is a big step along a path that could either be very beneficial to human life OR.. it could get snapped up and used for weapons research.. lets hope the latter doesn't happen.

Simulating a single cell division takes about 10 hours, according to Covert, and generates half a gigabyte of data. Not exactly big data, but then it is a very small organism. Adding more computing power should shorten the simulation time.

But the reason for building a bacterium in emulation?

“You don’t really understand how something works until you can reproduce it yourself,” says graduate student and team member Jayodita Sanghvi.

Imagine the implications of this if we managed to map the entire human body or even just an organ. The health benefits for this are potentially enormous!

“If you use a model to guide your experiments, you’re going to discover things faster. We’ve shown that time and time again,” said team leader Covert.

But don’t get your hopes up too high for personalized medicine or helpful simulations of how medication will affect you before you actually have to take it. A fully simulated human being is still a long way off.

But with advances in computing like this; Toward Achieving One Million Times Increase in Computing Efficiency it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if we see a fully functioning computer model of the human body in the next 5-10 years. Also, with progress being made in mapping the human brain just imagine what the future is going to be like..
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THis is a tremendous leap in computing.... Once we can simulate life we can really get cracking on big problems like disease and dare I say it death.....

Hopefully we hear about even larger organisms being produced every month from here on out.

Originally posted by roguetechie
THis is a tremendous leap in computing.... Once we can simulate life we can really get cracking on big problems like disease and dare I say it death.....

Hopefully we hear about even larger organisms being produced every month from here on out.

No No No.... Once we can simulate a Human being in a computer, then we can start to create a simulated reality for a simulated human being. Then one day we should be able to upload our consciousness into a computer simulation and interact with it matrix style. Then we could live our lives exactly the way we want. We could do anything, be gods in our own simulated reality, fly, create by thought, marvel at our own magnificence, then come to the realization that we are probably already simulations on an advanced races computer system.

Maybe after we alter some DNA, we could put these organisms under extreme temperatures or in certain scenarios
to speed boost evolution. In the process, we could gain a even more advanced understanding of evolution, and disprove some people wrong along the way.

If we get to the point where we can make an organism develop an ability to "think", what will we tell it when it asks its purpose?

WOW.

A certain R&D Division of the U.S. Military has been for quite some time...working on a way to duplicate a Bio-Engineered version of a Human Neural Transmitter. The reason for this is that the Human Brain works on a Quantum Level and all other attempts to develop a Quantum Computer had failed and it was theorized that using the Human Brains Neural Transmitters as a Template...the workings of a Bio-Mechanical Quantum Computer might be accomplished.

Now this information I have just posted is OLD and I would think that they are well in advance of this state of development. Having a Quantum Computer would increase computational speed to an unimaginable rate and thus give us the ability to solve problems that Multiple Banks of Super Computers Networked cannot do.

It could also allow us to form simulations of Quantum Particle/Wave Form activity thus do in a simulation a better example of what occurs than DATA we are collecting at the LHC. This may be one of the reasons the almost completed...DESERTRON...a HUGE Particle Accelerator that was built in the Texas Desert that made the LHC look like a Doughnut in comparison to a Hula Hoop.

I do not believe this is the FIRST TIME this Topics Example has been achieved. Split Infinity

reply to post by TechUnique


This is scary to me. The future will be them maybe taking a swab in your mouth, and then knowing what you are most vulnerable to.

Don't like the possibilities of this.

You know it's like the atom bomb. While a lot of good could have come from that, it was used as a weapon. Hard to read about today's advances, not knowing how they will be used.

I honestly believe that once Quantum computers start to come out, then they will be able to replicate human consciousness/any consciousness.That's when all the fun stuff will begin.

Originally posted by roguetechie
THis is a tremendous leap in computing.... Once we can simulate life we can really get cracking on big problems like disease and dare I say it death.....

Hopefully we hear about even larger organisms being produced every month from here on out.

I have a feeling this technology will just be used to make better sims games...