Friday 21 May 2010

Get a life



The big news today is that several Americans have managed to create a self-replicating form of life from synthetic DNA. As news goes, this event is perhaps more significant than most, but at the moment the chance of you creating your favourite pet out of a box of supermarket cleaning fluids and cornflakes is still a fair distance away.

Creating life is nothing new, of course; would-be parents do it all the time, but what's interesting about this achievement is that people weren't used and part of the DNA is synthetic. And it joins a list of discoveries and advances in Biology which include cloning, human genome mapping and freeze-dried spam to compete for the best theory of abiogenesis.

Of course, the media will soon start muttering about scientists 'playing God' and those who don't really understand what's happened (that's most of them) will start painting dark pictures of what might happen if this synthetic life escapes the confines of the laboratory. And, as with genetically modified crops and insects, or recombinant DNA experiments, the consequences of getting it wrong don't really bear thinking about. As one worrying example, imagine a virus being created that attacked grass.

But we've always pushed the boundaries of what's possible, and scientists have always tried to comprehend why things happen. And, if creating life synthetically becomes routinely practicable, then perhaps we could introduce some into the next CCBC meeting.

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