To all those who only object when milestones are reached by Greeks ... this should make you all happy!
'Maverick Frankenstein scientist' Dr Craig Venter creates 'artificial life'
A maverick scientist has created ‘artificial life’ for the first time in a breakthrough some believe is as signif icant as splitting the atom.
21st May, 2010
Biologist Dr Craig Venter produced man-made bacteria which could not have existed before, by writing a genetic sequence from scratch.
However, his critics said he was playing God and raised the possibility of his technology giving rise to the ‘most powerful bioweapons imaginable’.
Oxford University’s Prof Julian Sav ulescu said: ‘Venter is creaking open the most profound door in humanity’s history, potentially peeking into its destiny.
‘At the moment, it is basic bacteria just capable of replicating. This is a step towards something much more cont roversial – the creation of living beings with capacities and natures that could never have naturally evolved.’
Dr Venter’s team wrote a genetic code containing more than 1million ‘letters’ which was then implanted into a simple mycoplasma mycoides bacterium – the smallest known free-living life form – usually found in cattle and goats.
After multiple divisions, it was transformed into a new, blue-coloured bacterium.
Its synthetic genetic code contained a unique ‘watermark’ including an e-mail address, quotations and names of people involved in the £30million project.
Dr Venter said: ‘
This is the first synthetic cell that’s been made and we call it synthetic because the cell is totally derived from a synthetic chromosome.
‘This is an important step we think, both scientifically and philosophically. It’s certainly changed my views of the definitions of life and how life works.’
Benefits could include the creation of cheap drugs, biofuels, biotissue and even new organisms to absorb CO2.
But the American researcher has been dubbed ‘biology’s bad boy’ in the past for his aggressively commercial app roach and slick public relations.
His company, Synthetic Genomics, has a deal with BP to investigate more environmentally friendly fossil fuels.
Source:Metro
