This is one I keep up with, too. I'm interested enough that I have contacted some of the scientists directly that are working on aspects of the project. They are hopeful and confident. I'm convinced that we are within ten years of creating an artificial life form. This will be a weak single celled life form and it may be a long time after that before artificial multi-celled life is created.
Artificial life likely in 3 to 10 years
By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer
http://news. yahoo.com/ s/ap/20070820/ ap_on_sc/ artificial_ life
WASHINGTON - Around the world, a handful of scientists are trying to create life from scratch and they're getting closer.
Experts expect an announcement within three to 10 years from someone in the now little-known field of ';wet artificial life.';
';It's going to be a big deal and everybody's going to know about it,'; said Mark Bedau, chief operating officer of ProtoLife of Venice, Italy, one of those in the race. ';We're talking about a technology that could change our world in pretty fundamental ways ?in fact, in ways that are impossible to predict.';
That first cell of synthetic life ?made from the basic chemicals in DNA ?may not seem like much to non-scientists. For one thing, you'll have to look in a microscope to see it.
';Creating protocells has the potential to shed new light on our place in the universe,'; Bedau said. ';This will remove one of the few fundamental mysteries about creation in the universe and our role.';
And several scientists believe man-made life forms will one day offer the potential for solving a variety of problems, from fighting diseases to locking up greenhouse gases to eating toxic waste.
Bedau figures there are three major hurdles to creating synthetic life:
?A container, or membrane, for the cell to keep bad molecules out, allow good ones, and the ability to multiply.
?A genetic system that controls the functions of the cell, enabling it to reproduce and mutate in response to environmental changes.
?A metabolism that extracts raw materials from the environment as food and then changes it into energy.
One of the leaders in the field, Jack Szostak at Harvard Medical School, predicts that within the next six months, scientists will report evidence that the first step ?creating a cell membrane ?is ';not a big problem.'; Scientists are using fatty acids in that effort.
Szostak is also optimistic about the next step ?getting nucleotides, he building blocks of DNA, to form a working genetic system.
His idea is that once the container is made, if scientists add
nucleotides in the right proportions, then Darwinian evolution could simply take over.
';We aren't smart enough to design things, WE JUST LET EVOLUTION DO THE HARD WORK and then we figure out what happened,'; Szostak said.
In Gainesville, Fla., Steve Benner, a biological chemist at the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution is attacking that problem by going outside of natural genetics. Normal DNA consists of four bases ?adenine, cytosine, guanine and thymine (known as A,C,G,T) ?molecules that spell out the genetic code in pairs. Benner is trying to add eight new bases to the genetic alphabet.
Bedau said there are legitimate worries about creating life that could ';run amok,'; but there are ways of addressing it, and it will be a very long time before that is a problem.
';When these things are created, they're going to be so weak, it'll be a huge achievement if you can keep them alive for an hour in the lab,'; he said. ';But them getting out and taking over, never in our imagination could this happen.';
Robert Hazen PhD. has some interesting things to say about the creation of artificial life and the beginnings of natural abiogenesis.
Genesis: The Scientific Quest for Life's Origins - Robert Hazen PhD.
http://hazen.gl.ciw.edu/
Cloning has nothing to do with artificial life, as all of the ingredients are natural preexisting living forms. Cloning has already reached a high degree of success.
Religious beliefs are just that, 'beliefs' only and must be tested before they are assumed to be true. Some people need such mental crutches in order to handle the realities of the natural world. Personally I think that it is better to accept a cruel truth than to be mislead by a sweet lie.Are scientists nearing completion in their effort to create life in test tubes?
Thanks for the points and I hope that I've added something to our search. As for that last sentence, after six years of study and dilemma, I've learned to live by it. Seems that most folks can't, or are not equipped, to handle that.
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Several months ago the polio virus was successfully reproduced from scratch. A synthetic virus was injected into rabbits that developed symptoms of polio. Sorry, I am presently unable to provide reference for this event. That's synthetic life by my definition.
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A synthetic single cell organism will be a tremendous step forward. I've read some speculative fiction about such events. Get ready for big changes !
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I may sound very cynical and skeptical, which I am. But I still don't think that any amount of knowledge and ability justify giving up on all aspects of the divine or an afterlife. The predominant religions apply details to the point of contradiction.
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Search for the simple, the straightforward, and the self evident to find personal truths.
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gramma youre old enough to know the truth about such matters , what is it you really want to ask me ??
They already have done this. There are already test tube babies.
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