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Freethought & Rationalism ArchiveThe archives are read only. |
07-11-2002, 01:39 PM
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#1 |
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"First Synthetic Virus Created"
<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_2122000/2122619.stm" target="_blank">http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_2122000/2122619.stm</a>
So, Is the "creation" of a Cell Next on the Block? |
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07-11-2002, 01:43 PM
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#2 |
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Damn, you beat me to it by a hairsbreadth!
Well, <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_556000/556984.stm" target="_blank">here's</a> some more related stuff to chew on.  .T. [ July 11, 2002: Message edited by: Typhon ]</p> |
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07-11-2002, 01:48 PM
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#3 |
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Fascinating and a bit scary at the same time. I don't take much comfort in "just a few people know how to do it" when it was done with a recipe downloaded off the Internet using mail-order components.
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07-11-2002, 02:11 PM
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#4 | |
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Quote:
Tabula_rasa |
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07-11-2002, 04:01 PM
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#5 | |
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Quote:
Ahhh... this is what Dembski and Co. have been looking for -- proof that biological structures are intelligently designed! And it gets even better -- the "intelligent designer" has been identified as one Dr Eckard Wimmer. Kinda deflates the notion of a supernatural designer, though... |
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07-12-2002, 02:34 AM
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#6 |
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why does the picture of that person not comfort me?
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07-12-2002, 05:41 AM
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#7 | |
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Quote:
Its a pity religion and "playing God" is holding us back though. |
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07-12-2002, 08:43 AM
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#8 |
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The creationists would say that it is ironic that it takes us a lot of intelligence to design a virus yet "evolutionists" claim that life, which is much more complex, just "happened by chance".
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07-12-2002, 11:39 AM
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#9 |
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This is certainly a dramatic demonstration of the idea that the whole really is just the sum of the parts. A lot of the intuitive objection to abiogenesis is the belief that you need some extra "life force" on top of a lot of parts, to make life. The polio experiment shows that if you put the bits together in the proper order, you get life, no extras needed. It does not need a miracle or divine touch.
This is, of course, also a proof of principle. We've known for a long time that biology should in theory flow from the genetic code. But, this proves it rather dramatically. There are really no theoretical limits on this. One you've put the code to paper, it ought to be possible to reconstruct it in a new organism. |
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07-12-2002, 03:58 PM
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#10 |
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ohwilleke,
On the contrary, some of the information inherent in an organism is the product of it's developmental environment. (Which includes organells, brownian motion, etc) The genetic code does not explicitly store all of this enviornmental data. |
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