Scientists Create First Self-Replicating Synthetic Life

[gubbi]

For cloning we needed to take a tissue, but if a replicating cell can be created, why take a tissue from external Source,when You can create one, think about it?

No sir, you don't need tissue samples for the cloning process. Under ideal conditions, only the DNA molecule from one single cell is enough to introduce into another cell to create a clone.

One cannot create a replicating cell! A cell is a far far more complex thing. In the study under discussion, what Venter's group has done is something similar to cloning. But instead of taking DNA from another cell, they made that DNA in the laboratory! The cell's machinery to read the DNA and make proteins was already present in the cell. The DNA that the group made was also not something totally new. It was a copy of 2 microbes which had 95% similarities.

The problem is that the DNA molecule is huge!! There are many parts in that molecule whose role we do not understand. Though they seem to be there to just fill in spaces between important parts, studies have been slowly showing their importance in controlling the behavior of the "important" parts of the DNA. The possibility of creating totally new organisms using new DNA is not feasible, with the information we have presently. There is also the question of ethics. Biological research is dictated by ethics as much as it is dictated by the research grants given to the scientists. One cannot just create new DNA to make "Chimeras", because for one, we do not know how these chimeras would affect our nature!!

 

[Realist]

Astrobiology is quite an interesting subject. But all we humans know are Carbon based life forms, for the simple reason that the valency of carbon (valency 4 - can form 2, 3, or 4 bonds with same or different elements at a time!). But keep in mind that the most abundant element in the universe is Hydrogen followed by Helium! There is a remote possibility that life forms based on a different element probably do exist some where in the vast universe!

What do you think of directed panspermia as put forward by Crick? Pretty badass idea i think.

 

[below_freezing]

Let me say this,
They have NOT created "LIFE". All they have done is copy the DNA code from a cell, make that in a 'test-tube', remove the original DNA from the cell and put this new 'test-tube' DNA into the cell.

Guess what, it worked! The cell survived and started growing and dividing! It is indeed quite an achievement.

Now, instead of putting the 'test-tube' DNA into the cell, if you put DNA from another type of cell into a cell whose original DNA has been removed, you get a 'clone'! The famous "cloning" process!!!!

Oh, there are a lot of scientific papers which have Indians onboard! If the name isnt first on the list or the last (corresponding author), it aint worth mentioning!

Geez, the media just exaggerates, out of proportion, any scientific achievement, and the scientists do play along!!

exactly right.

this is just a restep of the cloning process, except that the genome is somewhat synthetic.

i only say somewhat because it was still put together by yeast and associated molecular machinery.

he didn't make a cell. if he made a cell frm the ground up, wow, that'd be a huge accomplishment, but he didn't, the interior of the cell is mostly the same in fact. same ribosomes, wall, membrane, etc.