Scientists create artificial DNA using chemicals

Source: nashua telegraph

Using off-the-shelf chemical compounds, scientists for the first time have constructed the entire genome of a bacterium, a key step toward their ultimate goal of creating synthetic life forms, researchers reported Thursday.

The artificial DNA was nearly identical to the natural version on which it was based – with minor modifications to identify it and render it harmless to people, according to the study in the journal Science.

The research team at J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Md., is now trying to insert the artificial DNA inside a living cell with the hope that it will take over its host and become the first synthetically created, self-replicating organism.

"This entire process started with four bottles of chemicals," said J. Craig Venter, who has been spearheading the overall project.

Read more: http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080125/NEWS03/783354448/-1/news

In the first place, Kerry doesn't name any specific lies WJC has supposedly told. The reason he doesn't is he can't, because Clinton has not told any actual lies about Obama. He has only done what every politician since the dawn of politics has done -- cast his opponent's actions in the most negative light.

In the second: who cares what Kerry thinks? He has no idea what goes on in a successful presidential campaign.

After realizing and belatedly regreting his lame response to the Swiftboaters, Kerry decided to make up for it by setting out on Rosamund in a quest for perfect truth. So he tilts at today's windmills, ineffectively as ever, trying to be relavent.

So you are saying that we should create the perfect candidate using this new synthetic DNA? Would this candidate be in the pockets of big science?

Verrrryyyy bad idea.

I can see it now...we create a really bad batch of DNA. It is so bad we send it into space. It crashes into a asteroid and lands on some faraway corner of the galaxy....

Three billion years later there is a planet full of people descended from monkeys that think making artificial DNA is a great idea....

:thumbsup:

Ah mans ability to destroy himself never ends.

They had to take special precautions so it wouldn't harm human life. It seems to me that with this technology all it would take is a single 'bad guy' to design an organism capable of destroying all life on earth. Not a good time to be starting a family.

Or actual life is too diverse to control. Or we think we can control life.

They took a Da Vinci masterpiece, made a bad Xerox copy of it, and called it original inspiration.

I'd bet my last penny they're leaving one or two small, vital steps out of the reportage.