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Scientists Create First Living Organism With 'Artificial' DNA

ludin said:
all it takes is one rogue scientist or an organization that could make a gene that destroys half of mankind.
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Funny you think science can do this kind of superhuman fantasy type of feat, but you think they cannot understand climate.
 
Removable Mind said:
Oh, sorry, they created a living organism using artificial DNA...my bad.
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Nope.

This is a quote from your article.

"But creating a wholly synthetic organism would be a huge challenge. 'A lot of times people will say you’ll make an organism completely out of your unnatural DNA,' says Romesberg. 'That’s just not going to happen, because there are too many things that recognize DNA. It’s too integrated into every facet of a cell’s life.'”

I say again, you haven't understood the article you linked.
 
Lursa said:
I find almost everything about your little slogan disturbing...even the phrasing is disturbing: "rise as a glorious empire," "collectively," "the strongest species the universe has ever seen." The last is so arrogant and implies so much aggression.

But this is my my personal opinion and I was just commenting on the slogan.
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It's all good, it's foolish to think everyone has the same opinion.

I believe in this forum I had already stated I was arrogant, or maybe that was another forum... Well I'll state it again I'm pretty damn arrogant in here and in "real life" as well.

EDIT

As for the phrasing:

"rise as a glorious empire" Humanity becoming extremely powerful

"Collectively" Everyone working together and pitching in to make an effort toward the goal of advance

"Strongest species the world ha ever seen" Just like you said, I'm right to the very bone prideful in humanity and arrogant, I want us to be #1, no one else, I'm just very prideful in my species.
 
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Threegoofs said:
Funny you think science can do this kind of superhuman fantasy type of feat, but you think they cannot understand climate.
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funny they have even said they don't fully understand what controls climate.
yet this has nothing to do with the topic. no i don't think they fully understand this as they just discovered they can do this.

who said anything about superhuman fantasy stuff? you make an incorrect DNA mutation inject it into someone you have no idea what the outcome could be. more than likely it will kill them. if it doesn't kill them then it could cause some other kind of mutation that could possible spread.

they have no idea what they are dealing with right now.
 
ludin said:
funny they have even said they don't fully understand what controls climate.
yet this has nothing to do with the topic. no i don't think they fully understand this as they just discovered they can do this.

who said anything about superhuman fantasy stuff? you make an incorrect DNA mutation inject it into someone you have no idea what the outcome could be. more than likely it will kill them. if it doesn't kill them then it could cause some other kind of mutation that could possible spread.

they have no idea what they are dealing with right now.
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Of course they don't have an idea right now, but they WILL in a very short time.

Science as per the Oxford Dictionary:"The intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment"

They will study and experiment this in a systematic form (most likely the scientific method as always) and they will find the truth as it is according to the world we know.
 
Peter Grimm said:
Nope.

This is a quote from your article.

"But creating a wholly synthetic organism would be a huge challenge. 'A lot of times people will say you’ll make an organism completely out of your unnatural DNA,' says Romesberg. 'That’s just not going to happen, because there are too many things that recognize DNA. It’s too integrated into every facet of a cell’s life.'”

I say again, you haven't understood the article you linked.
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I never claimed "WHOLLY SYNTHETIC". I said, creating an organism USING ARTIFICIAL DNA.
 
ludin said:
funny they have even said they don't fully understand what controls climate.
yet this has nothing to do with the topic. no i don't think they fully understand this as they just discovered they can do this.

who said anything about superhuman fantasy stuff? you make an incorrect DNA mutation inject it into someone you have no idea what the outcome could be. more than likely it will kill them. if it doesn't kill them then it could cause some other kind of mutation that could possible spread.

they have no idea what they are dealing with right now.
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It is the same topic- or at least a closely related one . It has to if with scientific literacy. You seem to be running a deficit, BTW.
 
Removable Mind said:
I never claimed "WHOLLY SYNTHETIC". I said, creating an organism USING ARTIFICIAL DNA.
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They didn't create an organism. They changed one base pair out of millions on an existing organism. And, to date, they still don't fully understand the effects or possibilities inherent in what they've been able to achieve.

Don't get me wrong, this is an intriguing discovery and thank you for bringing it to our attention.

I just don't want us to make more out of it than it is. You guys talking about being super humans are coming across rather silly.
 
Peter Grimm said:
They didn't create an organism. They changed one base pair out of millions on an existing organism. And, to date, they still don't fully understand the effects or possibilities inherent in what they've been able to achieve.

Don't get me wrong, this is an intriguing discovery and thank you for bringing it to our attention.

I just don't want us to make more out of it than it is. You guys talking about being super humans are coming across rather silly.
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Whoever stated super human beings was being a little wishful, the first few posts really only talk in a serious manner about finding cures and such. There was also the biological immortality portion but that was more so wishful thinking and having a laugh.
 
Luftwaffe said:
Whoever stated super human beings was being a little wishful, the first few posts really only talk in a serious manner about finding cures and such. There was also the biological immortality portion but that was more so wishful thinking and having a laugh.
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Fair enough.

Ambition, though it can fuel us, can also be blinding. In our frenzied passion to dream the big dream, the truth of our minor achievements, those so ardently toiled after, slip by unnoticed and misunderstood.
 
Peter Grimm said:
Fair enough.

Ambition, though it can fuel us, can also be blinding. In our frenzied passion to dream the big dream, the truth of our minor achievements, those so ardently toiled after, slip by unnoticed and misunderstood.
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Yep, just wanted to make sure you knew the OP and most of the logical people agreed that what this was really meant to do was help for things like finding cures, improving lives, etc. Not making super-humans XD although the life expectancy will most definitely arise once they figure a way to exploit this mass of potential.
 
Threegoofs said:
It is the same topic- or at least a closely related one . It has to if with scientific literacy. You seem to be running a deficit, BTW.
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nope not even closely related but nice strawman which is typical from you.
 
Luftwaffe said:
Whoever stated super human beings was being a little wishful, the first few posts really only talk in a serious manner about finding cures and such. There was also the biological immortality portion but that was more so wishful thinking and having a laugh.
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the person that stated super humans was using it as a strawman to something else.

in any event. i think they need to proceed with caution. dna can be unpredictable. more so if it starts mutating.
 
Peter Grimm said:
I don't think you understood the article you linked. They didn't "create life."
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No, they just created artificial DNA.
That's more complex than natural DNA.
And it's in a cell.
That's alive, as far as cells are ever alive...

Edit: After reading the article more fully, it appears that the artificial DNA isn't an integral part of the cell in question? Not sure I fully understand.
 
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ludin said:
the person that stated super humans was using it as a strawman to something else.

in any event. i think they need to proceed with caution. dna can be unpredictable. more so if it starts mutating.
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Absolutely, and mutations really aren't all that common (harmful ones) and in fact sometimes mutations occur due to adaptations needed to survive. For example the celts at one time around 60-70 generations ago had tiny amounts of iron in their diet so their body's compensated through a mutation that allowed for the body to code more codons to form proteins that increase absorption of iron.

Mutations aren't all that bad, sometimes they're helpful (Although it is unfortunate that that mutation ha become harmful due to the ease of access to iron today, although at the same time it is much rarer, showing that the body understands how to adapt well to conditions).

But of course experimentation as always, and safe experimentation at that.
 
Peter Grimm said:
They didn't create an organism. They changed one base pair out of millions on an existing organism. And, to date, they still don't fully understand the effects or possibilities inherent in what they've been able to achieve.

Don't get me wrong, this is an intriguing discovery and thank you for bringing it to our attention.

I just don't want us to make more out of it than it is. You guys talking about being super humans are coming across rather silly.
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To be fair, they did the experiment with a single base pair so they could track replication easier and have a better controlled experiment.

I see no inherent reason they can't substitute this foreign component into large chunks of material. I'd imagine it is currently useless, however....but the future goal will be to create a function for it.
 
Threegoofs said:
To be fair, they did the experiment with a single base pair so they could track replication easier and have a better controlled experiment.

I see no inherent reason they can't substitute this foreign component into large chunks of material. I'd imagine it is currently useless, however....but the future goal will be to create a function for it.
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Unless I misunderstood, it sounded like they inserted the artificial DNA into a cell or cells in some way, then let it do it's thing for a bit - only the artificial DNA was a limited supply, and when it ran out the cells went back to using their normal DNA - I'm not sure how this might work, but...

Perhaps a similar method might be used to apply a medicine, or change something temporarily - then when it runs out the host organism goes back to it's normal DNA...

I know so little about this ****...
 
The Mark said:
Unless I misunderstood, it sounded like they inserted the artificial DNA into a cell or cells in some way, then let it do it's thing for a bit - only the artificial DNA was a limited supply, and when it ran out the cells went back to using their normal DNA - I'm not sure how this might work, but...

Perhaps a similar method might be used to apply a medicine, or change something temporarily - then when it runs out the host organism goes back to it's normal DNA...

I know so little about this ****...
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Well, they substituted one base pair with a pair of unnatural bases, and let it run until the supply of those unnatural bases ran out. It is just a proof of principle that you can code real DNA with different base pairs.

This opens up lots of possibilities- in my mind- one could even be substitution of R-amino acids, which is the first step to making 'mirror image' organisms- with all R-amino acids vs the naturally occurring L amino acids.
 
Threegoofs said:
Well, they substituted one base pair with a pair of unnatural bases, and let it run until the supply of those unnatural bases ran out. It is just a proof of principle that you can code real DNA with different base pairs.

This opens up lots of possibilities- in my mind- one could even be substitution of R-amino acids, which is the first step to making 'mirror image' organisms- with all R-amino acids vs the naturally occurring L amino acids.
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I'm wondering if they could use it to temporarily create an environment that stops cancer from growing...or something....of course that would require tuning the treatment to the specific patient, but that seems to be the way medicine is trending anyway...
 
Threegoofs said:
No. It's quite simple. I'm just giving folks a heads up as to the degree of scientific literacy your comments hold.
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and the ad hominem to follow. your non-arguments are predictable.

you start with a strawman then follow it up with an ad hominem and act like it means something.
 
ludin said:
and the ad hominem to follow. your non-arguments are predictable.

you start with a strawman then follow it up with an ad hominem and act like it means something.
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It meant something. I'm guessing most people that read it understood it quite well.
 
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