Wet artificial life likely in next 10 years

Discussion in 'Biology & Genetics' started by pseud0, Aug 20, 2007.

  1. pseud0 El Comandante Administrator

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  3. one_raven God is a Chinese Whisper Valued Senior Member

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    It's news that someone is predicting there will be news in 10 years?
     
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  5. pseud0 El Comandante Administrator

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    Hehe, yep something like that.
     
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  7. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    "In the early 1950s Stanley L. Miller, working in the laboratory of Harold C. Urey at the University of Chicago, did the first experiment designed to clarify the chemical reactions that occurred on the primitive earth. In the flask at the bottom, he created an "ocean" of water, which he heated, forcing water vapor to circulate through the apparatus. The flask at the top contained an "atmosphere" consisting of methane (CH4), ammonia (NH3), hydrogen (H2) and the circulating water vapor. Next he exposed the gases to a continuous electrical discharge ("lightning"), causing the gases to interact. Water-soluble products of those reactions then passed through a condenser and dissolved in the mock ocean. The experiment yielded many amino acids and enabled Miller to explain how they had formed. For instance, glycine appeared after reactions in the atmosphere produced simple compounds - formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide - that participated in the set of reactions that took place. Years after this experiment, a meteorite that struck near Murchison, Australia, was shown to contain a number of the same amino acids that Miller identified (table) and in roughly the same relative amounts (dots); those found in proteins are highlighted in blue. Such coincidences lent credence to the idea that Miller's protocol approximated the chemistry of the prebiotic earth ."


    http://www.dogpile.com/info.dogpl/c...ocities.com/capecanaveral/lab/2948/orgel.html
     
  8. CharonZ Registered Senior Member

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    I'll believe it when they publish the first paper with experimental evidence. So far his publications are mostly theoretical. Sounds like hand waving to me.
     
  9. Ophiolite Valued Senior Member

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    Do you feel lucky punk? Well, do you?
     
  10. Mickmeister Registered Senior Member

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    That's very interesting. Awesome article! It was Stanley Miller who first created the amino acids from methane, ammonia, hydrogen, and water vapor in the 1950's. Since then, there have been other great experiments, by such companies as SynBio and Synthetic Genomics and by several universities, including Princeton and UC Berkley. I believe it was Rockefeller University that made the first big step in the US toward artificial life by creating artificial vesicles from fat molecules. The vesicles resembled cells. Before that, scientist had already shown that we can successfully make viruses from chemical components. They proved that by making Polio.

    The real problem is going to be the religious opponents of it.Here is a piece from MSNBC on the Pope's recent comments "Pope Benedict XVI has expressed outrage at scientists who "modify the very grammar of life as planned and willed by God." The pope elaborated in an address in 2006: "To take God's place, without being God, is insane arrogance, a risky and dangerous venture." " It will be interesting how religion will deal with life that was not created by God.
     
  11. Hercules Rockefeller Beatings will continue until morale improves. Moderator

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