"Synthetic DNA on the Brink of Yielding New Life Forms"

[GeoJAP]

File this one under "this will not end well."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/16/AR2007121601900_pf.html

[AmbulanceDriver]

This actually reminds me of a joke I read a number of years ago. 

Three scientists decide to challenge God.  They get together, and come up with a cunning plan.  They're gonna create a human from dirt.

So they go to God.  "God, we're gonna prove that you're not so all powerful!"

"Oh," says God, "How do you plan on doing that?"

"We're gonna do the same thing you did.  We're going to make a man from dirt!"

"Ok," says God, "let me know when you're ready."


So the scientists head back to the lab, and after about 10 years, they finally succeed!

Off they go back to challenge God...  "We did it!  We succeeded in creating a human from dirt!"

So God looks down at their lab instruments and all their apparatus.  "Well, go right ahead," God says, "I'll be patient while you get set up."

So the scientists get their equipment all ready, all is set.  One of the scientists leans down with a scoop, getting ready to pick up some dirt from the ground...

"WAIT A MINUTE!" God booms, "get your OWN dirt!"

[Joe Demko]

I have severe misgivings over where this will lead.  However, just like with guns, the technology cannot be uninvented.

[El Tejon]

I AM LEGEND!

[jrfoxx]

I vote----worst idea EVER!

[mfree]

File this one under "this will not end well."

Nope.

File this under "this will be bad" because it may not end at all

[Scout26]

Yeah, but can they make dinosaurs ??   

[Manedwolf]

Artificial life form experimentation is a good reason to have a moon base.

At least, some protocols need to be established. Such as doing this only by telepresence inside sealed pods that can be sterilized by plasma if something goes wrong. Nothing gets out of the pod but data, and when the experiment is done, it gets a 5000 degree plasma arc through a flood of gas. There's just too much bad that could happen if something got out into the environment.

[Matthew Carberry]

"We have to burn the room!"

[geronimotwo]

"If you want to sell it at a dollar a gallon . . . you need every bit of efficiency you can muster," said DuPont's Pierce. "So we're running these bugs to their limits."

all i have to say is "bugs have rights too"

[AJ Dual]

I'm not worried, yet.

Any artificial life will be a big struggle to build a cell from the ground up and just getting it to live and replicate in sterile laboratory conditions. Now they're producing whole genomes, but they're still inserting them into existing natural cells. It's kind of like buying a fuel/ignition computer to soup up your existing car, and saying you "made" a "sports car", ignoring all the design work and labor that went into producing the other 99% of that car by weight.

"Real Life" is the product of billions of years of ruthless evolution. Any such first generation synthetic life forms, should they escape, will be like a newborn chick tossed over the fence into a wolf pen. And the chick dies from exposure in ten seconds before the wolves even get at it. "Superbugs" with insane levels of lethality already exist, nature churns them out constantly right now without our help.

My grandmother is in the hospital with MRSA "Super Staph" that she probably got from a heart operation last summer. Germs that evolved on their own without any help from us to defeat almost all known antibiotics. I had to put on a gown and gloves to go in and see her.

So it's plausible, but still rather far fetched that some lab will turn out an artificial germ that will kill everyone when a vastly more powerful and brute-force machine that's been running for millions of years hasn't done it yet.

[Perd Hapley]

I had to put on a gown and gloves to go in and see her.

Like this?

[DustinD]

There's just too much bad that could happen if something got out into the environment.

If it was easy to accidentally produce some uber bug nature would have already done it.

[AmbulanceDriver]

There's just too much bad that could happen if something got out into the environment.

If it was easy to accidentally produce some uber bug nature would have already done it.

Ummmm....


MRSA.  VRE.  HIV.  Ebola.  Although HIV isn't necessarily a uber bug because of it's frailty outside an ideal environment, something with 100% mortality definitely fits my bill of an uber bug.

[seeker_two]

File this one under "this will not end well."

I hate it when the scientific community watches a movie like "Resident Evil" or "Jurassic Park" and says, "Hey, that's a great idea. Let's do that...." 

[GeoJAP]

If it was easy to accidentally produce some uber bug nature would have already done it.

I'm very interested to hear your scientific hypothesis supporting this conclusion.

[The Viking]

File this one under "this will not end well."

I hate it when the scientific community watches a movie like "Resident Evil" or "Jurassic Park" and says, "Hey, that's a great idea. Let's do that...." 

Then on the other hand we got movies such as X-Men, Spiderman etc. Thats a terrific idea .

[Matthew Carberry]

File this one under "this will not end well."

I hate it when the scientific community watches a movie like "Resident Evil" or "Jurassic Park" and says, "Hey, that's a great idea. Let's do that...." 

You realize that many APS/THR/TFL/ARFcom etc. types say a silent prayer each night.

"Dear Lord, please let tomorrow be the day the zombie dinosaurs finally rise."

[seeker_two]

File this one under "this will not end well."

I hate it when the scientific community watches a movie like "Resident Evil" or "Jurassic Park" and says, "Hey, that's a great idea. Let's do that...." 

Then on the other hand we got movies such as X-Men, Spiderman etc. Thats a terrific idea .

Except for Venom, Sandman, Doc Octopus, Magneto, and Sabertooth.... 

Mystique......I'll have to "research further"....

[AJ Dual]

I had to put on a gown and gloves to go in and see her.

Like this?

Fistful, you're a fricking barbarian, you know that?

A-lines are so 2004. Empire waists are in this year...

[Perd Hapley]

I'm no expert on ladies' fashions, but how is that an A-line? 


Wait, what's the topic again? 

[AJ Dual]

I'm no expert on ladies' fashions, but how is that an A-line? 

As if I had an f'ing clue... 
I think A-line and Empire are the only two terms I even know, and probably from trying to act interested about ten years ago when the then future Mrs. Dual was burying me with ideas and details of getting her wedding dress made.

[Matthew Carberry]

I'm no expert on ladies' fashions, but how is that an A-line? 

As if I had an f'ing clue... 
I think A-line and Empire are the only two terms I even know, and probably from trying to act interested about ten years ago when the then future Mrs. Dual was burying me with ideas and details of getting her wedding dress made.

A-Line

Definition: A dress or skirt silhouette that is narrower at the top, flaring gently wider toward the bottom thereby resembling the letter A. Works well on most figure types; good for disguising bottom-heavy figures.

Empire Waist

Definition: A type of dress or top where the waist line is raised above the natural waistline, sometimes as high as right below the bust. Best on slender-on-top or petite figures, the empire dress creates the illusion of length and camouflages a bottom-heavy figure or thick waist.

Cinderella is wearing a ball gown, she has no "heavy bottom" to disguise. Bell-shaped skirt and fitted bodice, in this case with little poofy sleevelets.




I'm going to be gay over in the corner now.

[Perd Hapley]

I think A-line and Empire are the only two terms I even know, and probably from trying to act interested about ten years ago when the then future Mrs. Dual was burying me with ideas and details of getting her wedding dress made. 

Same here.     My wife wears skirts (or dresses or jumpers) EVERY DAY, so I probably hear about that kind of stuff a little more. 


I'll go to my corner, too, now.  Sorry. 

[280plus]

Care, I don't know if it's impressive or scary that you know all that...