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Old 07-11-2002, 01:39 PM   #1
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Post "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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Old 07-11-2002, 01:43 PM   #2
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Exclamation

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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Old 07-11-2002, 01:48 PM   #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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Old 07-11-2002, 02:11 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally posted by Typhon:
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 ][/QB]
Has an ethical discussion taken place yet? I would think that scientists probably already know how to go about it, but want to discuss the issues in a broader forum first.

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Old 07-11-2002, 04:01 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally posted by Tabula_rasa:
<strong><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?</strong>

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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Old 07-12-2002, 02:34 AM   #6
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why does the picture of that person not comfort me?
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Old 07-12-2002, 05:41 AM   #7
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Quote:
Originally posted by Mageth:
<strong>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.</strong>
That was a very strange line to put in the article, without knowing where the components came from it sounded professional...

Its a pity religion and "playing God" is holding us back though.
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Old 07-12-2002, 08:43 AM   #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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Old 07-12-2002, 11:39 AM   #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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Old 07-12-2002, 03:58 PM   #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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