[OT] It's alive: Lab to spawn new life form

[Fast Learner]

If you believe the sole interest the DoE has in this is to create more efficient hydrogen producing bugs...

Here, I have this prize for you. Don't be shy, just step up here to the microphone.

What? the small text on he base of the statue? Don't you worry about it...Well it says "Mr Gullibility of the Century".

Yeah, that's you.

Ah, very nicely put. Cynical much?

Now, back to reality: yes, energy-related functions such as producing hydrogen and cleaning up pollution from energy-production are what the DoE is interested in.

That doesn't mean that other parts of the government aren't interested for other reasons, but there is such a thing as a department that actually tries to do its own work. In fact, that's how they get their funding: doing what they're supposed to do.

Do you have any idea how huge the impact would be of being able to make tons of hydrogen from, say, garbage, or human waste, or animal waste, or what have you? Hydrogen that can be used completely pollution free in fuel cells? Yes, the current administration is in the thrall of the oil companies, but even W knows that some day we must be free of our dependency on the Middle East.

Free energy would be a real coup for the DoE.

 

[Teneb]

First of all, making DNA strands from scratch isn't all that hard. I do it nearly every day. However, as one poster mentioned above, the scale is the thing.

Reading the news blurb, I really don't see it as that big of a deal. They're basically reverse engineering this bacterium to see what the minimal number/type of genes are required for the thing to still survive and divide.

For the conspiracy theorists out there (ie those of you posting above ), this would, in theory, free up a lot of space to insert other genes which might not be so pleasant (Toxins. In your genital tract. Think about it.)

 

[Zappo]

They also contradict each other.

Yeah, I guess it's because, being fairly technical things, each reporter is filtering them through what he knows and understands. We'll have to wait for more details.

First of all, making DNA strands from scratch isn't all that hard. I do it nearly every day.

Cool! How long does it take?

Reading the news blurb, I really don't see it as that big of a deal. They're basically reverse engineering this bacterium to see what the minimal number/type of genes are required for the thing to still survive and divide.

Sounds like a good approach. At least, that's what I do when I'm trying to figure out how 300K of uncommented C code work. I guess they'll start from the whole genome and trim it, instead of starting from scratch and incrementing it.

 

[Dinkeldog]

Hey everyone.

Nothing else to add, really, just saying hey.

 

[Vaxalon]

Cool! How long does it take?

I can make a complete human genome, from scratch, in a matter of minutes. It's so easy I can do it in my sleep!

 

[Airwolf]

Hey everyone.

Nothing else to add, really, just saying hey.

Thanks for dropping by DD.

 

[MerakSpielman]

I can make a complete human genome, from scratch, in a matter of minutes. It's so easy I can do it in my sleep!

Not to nitpick, but don't you actually make exactly one half of a human genome? And more than once a day. More like thousands....

And I hope nobodys so gullable that they don't think the DOE (and DOD for that matter, but they leave the actual thinking to the eggheads) don't see the potential for bioweaponry here. But fear not! The same technology used to create such a weapon can be used to counter it. That's the way it's gone through the centuries.

 

[Vaxalon]

Half? I think you're thinking of meiosis, rather than mitosis... I do some of that too...

And yes, thousands of times a day...

And I *do* fear it. It'll someday rank up there with nuclear techonology on the grand "Was this REALLY such a good idea?" list.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Sweeeet. ^_^

Hey, if the DOE is for it for the most logical reason (Fuel Cell production) I'm all for it. Less polution = A Good Thing.

Of course, I can imagine what the likes of the Harry Potter Burners have to say about this lil' tinkering...

Mwahaha. I love it. It's FRANKENGERM!

Definately giving me a lot of ideas for a lot of things inside my complex lil' organ...

....to imagine that, in theory, some day, that petrie dish could be thinking similar things.....

MWahaha. Juiblex's Intelligent Slime will Rise! Like Yeast!

 

[Mishihari Lord]

Why should they write the entire genome from scratch? As any programmer will tell you, code reuse is the only thing that makes large projects possible. Nature supplies us with a great big huge library of existing code; there's no reason to rewrite the wheel every time.

They said they wanted to see what the minimum amount of DNA you need to have to have life. Also, there are certain design insights you get from doing things from scratch that you don't get any other way. Remember, this is still research.

To carry the software analogy, manipulating known blocks of DNA is like coding in C. These guys want to learn assembly.