http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/sci ... _environment/10134341.stm

"Researchers in the US have developed the first synthetic living cell.
Their work, which many scientists have called a landmark study, is a key step towards the design and creation of new living things."

In far future we are designing humans ourselves?

So we created life from nothing?

I am amazed how human can be so intelligent but in the same time bear so much fundamental conflictions and problems.

Quote from JJ72 :

So we created life from nothing?

I am amazed how human can be so intelligent but in the same time bear so much fundamental conflictions and problems.

Thats actually the first thing that popped into my head when I heard about this.

Nevertheless, very interesting stuff. I wonder what they will do next with this "power".

The first thing that popped into my head was Terminator 2, because only organic matter gets through the portals

I'm not really sure what the point of this is, other than to say they did it.

Quote from DevilDare :

Nevertheless, very interesting stuff. I wonder what they will do next with this "power".

Be stifled by organised religion as with stem cell research?

Probably...

To be honest I just tend to ingore them idiots. They are so much up their own arses with their God and religion it is just too much for me to take notice of anymore...

I think everyone should do the same. They clearly care more for something that is no use to us instead of supporting something that could be revolutionary.

Sorry if I offended anyone....

Quote from JJ72 :

So we created life from nothing?

Nope, we did not actually.

We just created an artificial DNA string, inserted it into bacteria while taking their own DNA out and watch them reproduce the new code happily.

Quote from DevilDare :

Probably...

To be honest I just tend to ingore them idiots. They are so much up their own arses with their God and religion it is just too much for me to take notice of anymore...

I think everyone should do the same. They clearly care more for something that is no use to us instead of supporting something that could be revolutionary.

Sorry if I offended anyone....

The problem with just ignoring organised religion is that they have so much power in so many countries throughout the world that they effect social policy in so many areas. They get tax breaks, they effect changes in laws around things like abortion and scientific research, they create tensions between people ultimately leading to violence and murder. Just ignoring organised religion hasn't worked up 'til now and with an increasing number of secularists it's time for people to stop putting up with it and start voicing opinions against it. I have no problem with someone else believing in something supernatural, but when their beliefs effect my life it's too much.

Quote from amp88 :

The problem with just ignoring organised religion is that they have so much power in so many countries throughout the world that they effect social policy in so many areas. They get tax breaks, they effect changes in laws around things like abortion and scientific research, they create tensions between people ultimately leading to violence and murder. Just ignoring organised religion hasn't worked up 'til now and with an increasing number of secularists it's time for people to stop putting up with it and start voicing opinions against it. I have no problem with someone else believing in something supernatural, but when their beliefs effect my life it's too much.

Well I agree, but what does 'voicing your opinion' create? War and conflicts. Well in most cases anyway... That barely does any good.

Quote from DevilDare :

Well I agree, but what does 'voicing your opinion' create? War and conflicts. Well in most cases anyway... That barely does any good.

Yeah, those slaves in America and the rational thinkers in the North should have just kept quiet. Everything was so much better than.

It's not about stopping people from going to church, it's about stopping them effecting people who don't believe in the same thing as they do. If, for example, I was a woman who was raped and fell pregnant as a result I would probably want to have an abortion. Some people don't believe abortion is right, so they harass people going into and coming out of abortion clinics, firebomb them, harass doctors who perform abortions etc. Then we have the people who wish to arrest the pope when he visits the UK. The pope (and the catholic church) have routinely covered up cases of child sex abuse, moved priests and paid off families under the cover that they don't want to devalue their religion. They should not be able to protect paedophiles and the only reason they can is because they're protected as an organised religion.

But what can we do? Dont get me wrong, I 100% agree with you and thats exactly how I think, but at the end of the day we are pretty limited as to what we can actually do. Voicing our opinions will get us nowhere. Dont have to be a rocket scientist to work this out.

Quite sad when you really think about it that a bunch of .... start telling you what to do and what not to, because it says so in a book....

Quote from ColeusRattus :

We just created an artificial DNA string, inserted it into bacteria while taking their own DNA out and watch them reproduce the new code happily.

Correct. They achieved even less then that. They read the DNA of a Mycoplasma, added a couple of water-marks to it, artificially sequenced the new (functionally identical) DNA and replaced the original DNA of a Mycoplasma with the new one.
So far that's not creating life, that's copying text from a book to a Word-document and then printing it again in book-form. Even slightly less then that, because you don't even create the new book to print to from scratch.

But of course this proof-of-concept shows us how close humanity is to both utopia and anti-utopia.

Vain

Quote from DevilDare :

But what can we do?

Well, electing the Lib Dems would have been a start for the UK. One of the problems is that religion is such a taboo subject for many. There needs to be more of an open dialogue in society on issues of equality (including religion), but I have no idea how that can happen.

Well I gues we are screwed then for at least another 4 years...

Makes me think of Oryx and Crake.

If this interests you there is an IAMA post on Reddit by one of the creators: link
(IAMA= I am a ... AMA= Ask me anything)

Quote from ColeusRattus :

Nope, we did not actually.

We just created an artificial DNA string, inserted it into bacteria while taking their own DNA out and watch them reproduce the new code happily.

Well that is considerably less impressive.

I appreciate how the researchers themselves are open to, and want to be included in, the ethical debate. That's nice to see. I also think this being applied to vaccines and other cures is fascinating. Being in the US, though, I wonder how long it will take for all of their equipment and research to be ceased by the gov't/military and used on the battlefield.

Quote from MAGGOT :

I appreciate how the researchers themselves are open to, and want to be included in, the ethical debate. That's nice to see. I also think this being applied to vaccines and other cures is fascinating. Being in the US, though, I wonder how long it will take for all of their equipment and research to be ceased by the gov't/military and used on the battlefield.

Probably much faster than any cure for cancer - which was it's biggest selling point on our news.

Quote from Vain :

So far that's not creating life, that's copying text from a book to a Word-document and then printing it again in book-form. Even slightly less then that, because you don't even create the new book to print to from scratch.

A better analogy I think would be like stopping a newspaper printing press, changing a few of the typeset letters, setting it off again and watching it print papers with your new letters in place.

Ha! FRANKEN-CELL