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No God needed to create life; just scientists - 3/21/2011 11:12:32 PM

Hippiekinkster

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The J. Craig Venter Institute created a wholly artificial DNA, injected it into a bacterium from which the original DNA had been removed, and the cell "booted up" and ran. This is huge.

For those who follow this sort of thing, this press release is fairly old news. I saw it first on a TED talk http://www.ted.com/talks/craig_venter_unveils_synthetic_life.html. Well worth the twenty minutes or so.

Press release (first few paragraphs):
ROCKVILLE, MD—January 24, 2008—A team of 17 researchers at the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) has created the largest man-made DNA structure by synthesizing and assembling the 582,970 base pair genome of a bacterium, Mycoplasma genitalium JCVI-1.0. This work, published online today in the journal Science by Dan Gibson, Ph.D., et al, is the second of three key steps toward the team’s goal of creating a fully synthetic organism. In the next step, which is ongoing at the JCVI, the team will attempt to create a living bacterial cell based entirely on the synthetically made genome.

The team achieved this technical feat by chemically making DNA fragments in the lab and developing new methods for the assembly and reproduction of the DNA segments. After several years of work perfecting chemical assembly, the team found they could use homologous recombination (a process that cells use to repair damage to their chromosomes) in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae to rapidly build the entire bacterial chromosome from large subassemblies.

“This extraordinary accomplishment is a technological marvel that was only made possible because of the unique and accomplished JCVI team,” said J. Craig Venter, Ph.D., President and Founder of JCVI. “Ham Smith, Clyde Hutchison, Dan Gibson, Gwyn Benders, and the others on this team dedicated the last several years to designing and perfecting new methods and techniques that we believe will become widely used to advance the field of synthetic genomics.” Courtesy Niel_Bitch in FL. Neil points out the amazing possibilities of self-replicating blow-job robots.

Now there is no need to postulate a "divine creator' other than as an aesthetic position.

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RE: No God needed to create life; just scientists - 3/21/2011 11:21:25 PM

willbeurdaddy

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And what is your purpose in posting this 3 year old news?

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RE: No God needed to create life; just scientists - 3/21/2011 11:26:28 PM

tazzygirl

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Didnt they use yeast as a medium?

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RE: No God needed to create life; just scientists - 3/22/2011 1:01:15 AM

Kirata

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Hippiekinkster

The J. Craig Venter Institute created a wholly artificial DNA, injected it into a bacterium from which the original DNA had been removed, and the cell "booted up" and ran. This is huge... Now there is no need to postulate a "divine creator"

Not to defend the idea of a Creator, but the operative phrase here is "injected it into a bacterium." I wouldn't open the champagne just yet.

K.

< Message edited by Kirata -- 3/22/2011 1:03:47 AM >

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RE: No God needed to create life; just scientists - 3/22/2011 1:34:15 AM

tweakabelle

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Isn't this the same Craig Venter who made the now discredited claim to have identified the so-called "gay gene"?

It would be nice to see some independent verification of his work, if there is any available. It could only enhance its credibility.

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RE: No God needed to create life; just scientists - 3/22/2011 2:10:16 AM

shallowdeep

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Kirata
Not to defend the idea of a Creator, but the operative phrase here is "injected it into a bacterium." I wouldn't open the champagne just yet.

Pretty much my take as well. I wrote up a lengthier post when this topic was covered here before. It was apparently boring enough to finish off that thread…

Also, to clarify, the press release from 2008 excerpted above is actually from work that preceded the "synthetic cell" announcement made in May 2010 that the TED talk (link fixed for convenience) focuses on.

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RE: No God needed to create life; just scientists - 3/22/2011 4:43:15 AM

SexyBossyBBW

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Link says "can't find the post you're looking for."

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RE: No God needed to create life; just scientists - 3/22/2011 7:13:05 AM

tazzygirl

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quote:

Isn't this the same Craig Venter who made the now discredited claim to have identified the so-called "gay gene"?

Try Dean Hamer.

The scientist who two years ago controversially announced the discovery of the "gay gene" has found further evidence for its existence in homosexual men but not in lesbian women.

Dean Hamer, a geneticist at the US National Cancer Institute in Washington DC, said yesterday that his latest research confounds the critics who called his earlier work into question.

A proclivity for homosexuality which some men carry on the X chromosome they inherit from their mothers is confirmed by the latest work, published in Nature Genetics, Dr Hamer said. "You can never say we're 100 per cent sure but we're twice as sure as before. We are better than 99 per cent sure that it's not a fluke."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/research-confirms-gay-gene-discovery-1580244.html

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RE: No God needed to create life; just scientists - 3/22/2011 7:25:59 AM

tweakabelle

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Thanks for that tazzy. You are quite right. I was wrong to confuse the two of them.

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RE: No God needed to create life; just scientists - 3/22/2011 11:59:52 AM

eihwaz

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Hippiekinkster
Now there is no need to postulate a "divine creator' other than as an aesthetic position.

Because an existing advanced life form was able to leverage a preexisting architecture and design framework to program a simple life form? Hmmm... Life, by definition, is self-organizing and self-propagating.

Also, do you accept the Creationist/Intelligent Designist proposition that the question of the existence of a 'divine creator' is a scientific one or has anything to do with science?

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RE: No God needed to create life; just scientists - 3/22/2011 12:15:49 PM

Fellow

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quote:

This extraordinary accomplishment is a technological marvel

That is all it is. It has no relevance to a God question. They were able to chemically put together relatively long DNA molecule. They did not create life. They just sequenced the genome, copied it chemically and inserted into a living cell where it was previously taken from. It happens naturally when cell divides (no God needed for cell division). They do not even know all details how it works. One is more God by creating a plastic polymer. We just move closer to God.

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RE: No God needed to create life; just scientists - 3/22/2011 12:37:20 PM

willbeurdaddy

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The synthesis of self-replicating RNA in the lab in 2009 and without any biological precursors is much closer to resolving the abiogenesis issue than this experiment, imo.

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