No way that this could go wrong - Lab Creates Life with "Alien" DNA

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by tulianr, May 10, 2014.


  1. tulianr

    tulianr Don Quixote de la Monkey

    Lab Creates Life With 'Alien' DNA
    New letters added to DNA 'alphabet'

    (Newser) – It's alive! Scientists say that they have created the first living organism with synthetic DNA unlike that of any life that has ever existed on Earth. Until now, all species used the same DNA code of four letters, but researchers added two new DNA bases labeled X and Y to the existing G, T, C, and A to create bacteria with synthetic DNA, the Guardian explains. They believe that with the expanded "alphabet," organisms could be engineered to create drugs or other products. "What we have now is a living cell that literally stores increased genetic information," says Floyd Romesberg, the chemical biologist who led the 15-year effort to create the "alien" organism. "If you have a language that has a certain number of letters, you want to add letters so you can write more words and tell more stories."

    The research, however, raises plenty of safety and ethical issues. "The arrival of this unprecedented 'alien' life form could in time have far-reaching ethical, legal, and regulatory implications," a spokesman for the ETC advocacy group tells the New York Times. But Romesberg says there is no chance of the bacteria spreading because although they can reproduce, they need to be fed the synthetic DNA to survive and would either die or revert to natural DNA if they were in an environment like a human body. "This could never infect something," he says.

    Lab Creates Life With 'Alien' DNA - New letters added to DNA 'alphabet'
     
    Mike and enloopious like this.
  2. Yard Dart

    Yard Dart Vigilant Monkey Moderator

    I smell MZB's in the next room....run Forest......RUN!!!!!
     
  3. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    Yep, zombie plague, coming up.
     
    Mike likes this.
  4. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    And another earthquake will never hit LA, not in a million years.
     
  5. DarkLight

    DarkLight Live Long and Prosper - On Hiatus

    What the hell?!?!?! Is this the result of a lab dare or the equivalent of a scientific "hey fellas, watch this (here, hold my beaker)"?
     
    gunbunny, Mike, Sapper John and 4 others like this.
  6. VisuTrac

    VisuTrac Ваша мать носит военные ботинки Site Supporter+++

    Oh, so it's a new GMO. No big, it's not like the previous ones were detrimental or anything.
     
    William Antrum, Brokor and Mike like this.
  7. VHestin

    VHestin Farm Chick

    Why don't they do something useful with their time/resources, like trying to create an honest politician?
     
  8. DarkLight

    DarkLight Live Long and Prosper - On Hiatus

    Well, the do need a "win" every now and again. I think the honest politician is as rare as... yeah, not gonna happen any time soon.
     
    Mike likes this.
  9. Dunerunner

    Dunerunner Brewery Monkey Moderator

    None of them watched Jurassic Park or read The Andromeda Strain??
     
  10. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    They're working on a sequel....
     
    Dunerunner and Mike like this.
  11. Mike

    Mike Ol' Army Sergeant Monkey

    They can't do the impossible.
     
    gunbunny and oldawg like this.
  12. Wheelsucker

    Wheelsucker Out of Airspeed, Altitude & Ideas

    Like the dead Sheriff says in the song: "Kill it before it grow..."
     
    Mike likes this.
  13. Brokor

    Brokor Live Free or Cry Moderator Site Supporter+++ Founding Member

    "This can never infect something." -famous last words.
     
    Mike and kellory like this.
  14. gunbunny

    gunbunny Never Trust A Bunny

    I can see their point from a bio-nanomachine standpoint. Proteins are all about the shape, and if they are new shapes, well then, they can't interact with the receptors that we have... Except if you are hell bent on making imitation proteins out of foreign nucleic acids, making something that is hard to detect with our present tests.

    Yes they can manipulate this stuff for nefarious and evil purposes all too easily.
     
    Mike likes this.
  15. Dunerunner

    Dunerunner Brewery Monkey Moderator

    [​IMG] [​IMG]
     
    Mike likes this.
  16. -06

    -06 Monkey+++

    Like the title of the thread---"no way that this could go wrong". I remember the original Andromeda Strain movie.
     
  17. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    tulianr likes this.
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