Monday,
August 20, 2007
ProtoLife
of
The
ANNOTICO Report
The three
major hurdles to creating synthetic life are, (1) membrane, for the cell to
keep bad molecules out, allow good ones, and the ability to multiply. (2)
a genetic system enabling it to reproduce and mutate in response to
environmental changes.(3) a metabolism that extracts food from
the environment and then changes it into energy.
Artificial Life Likely in 3 to 10 years |
From Associated Press By Seth Borenstein AP Science Writer August 19, 2007 |
WASHINGTON- Around the
world, a handful of scientists are trying to create life from scratch and
they're getting closer. Experts expect an announcement within three
to 10 years from someone in the now little-known field of "wet
artificial life." "It's going to be a big deal and
everybody's going to know about it," said Mark Bedau,
chief operating officer of ProtoLife of Venice,
Italy, one of those in the race. "We're talking about a technology that
could change our world in pretty fundamental ways"in
fact, in ways that are impossible to predict." That first cell of synthetic life"made from the basic chemicals in DNA" may
not seem like much to non-scientists. For one thing, you'll have to look in a
microscope to see it. "Creating protocells
has the potential to shed new light on our place in the universe," Bedau said. "This will remove one of the few
fundamental mysteries about creation in the universe and our role." And several scientists believe man-made life
forms will one day offer the potential for solving a variety of problems,
from fighting diseases to locking up greenhouse gases to eating toxic waste. Bedau figures there are three major hurdles to creating
synthetic life: A container, or membrane, for the cell
to keep bad molecules out, allow good ones, and the ability to multiply. A genetic system that controls the
functions of the cell, enabling it to reproduce and mutate in response to
environmental changes. A metabolism that extracts raw materials
from the environment as food and then changes it into energy. One of the leaders in the field, Jack Szostak at Szostak is also optimistic about the next step - getting
nucleotides, the building blocks of DNA, to form a working genetic system. His idea is that once the container is made,
if scientists add nucleotides in the right proportions, then Darwinian
evolution could simply take over. "We aren't smart enough to design
things, we just let evolution do the hard work and then we figure out what
happened," Szostak said. In Bedau said there are legitimate worries about creating
life that could "run amok," but there are ways of addressing it,
and it will be a very long time before that is a problem. "When these things are created,
they're going to be so weak, it'll be a huge achievement if you can keep them
alive for an hour in the lab," he said. "But them getting out and
taking over, never in our imagination could this happen." (This version CORRECTS Bedau
quote to "shed new light") |
healthandscience/ci_6665326?nclick_check=1 The ANNOTICO Reports Can
be Viewed (and are Archived) on: Italia Italia Mia: http://www.ItaliaMia.com (3 years) Annotico Email: annotico@earthlink.net |
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