Artificial life breakthrough

[Phoenix]

BBC News - 'Artificial life' breakthrough announced by scientists

Woohoo!

 

[_EX]

Just like the Triffids....
We all know how that turned out for us.

 

[Dentim]

And so it begins.
Welp, better start practicing.

Is it too early to say: "I for one, welcome our artificial overlords"

In all seriousness, this could have some very good applications. And some very bad. Guess which'll be worked on first.

 

[tangerine]

Fantastic. I have to say that critics such as Dr Helen Wallace aren't really thinking their criticisms through, though. Nothing is made and simply released on a large scale with a "let's see what happens" attitude. It's highly unlikely that this is what would happen with future synthetic organism developments. Non-urgent scientific advances are usually researched and tested for many years to proper standards and many years more undergoing patents and other paperwork before they're released publicly or applied for commercial or pharmaceutical use, and I'm sure it will be no different for synthetic organisms.

 

[Phoenix]

Relatedly, we humans created our own life. Now let's send it to Mars.

(is it its own species, does taxonomy handle it?)

 

[Eyesore]

Superhuman babies ftw.
My dreams as a kid are getting closer as I get older.

 

[Fire's fan]

Well, I we're going into the Matrix I'll enjoy not having to learn anything, I'll just download Kung Fu to my 'hard drive'

 

[Tenyas]

I suppose, in theory, they could make simple organisms through constructing enough cells that would naturally work together. Imagining something big right now is kinda hard to imagine, though, since they seem to only be able to make the directive center of the cell and not the shell of it.

Still, this is pretty dang neat.

I want my hovercar now.

 

[BritneyBritofldw]

This was a triumph~

Sorry, wrong thread.

But thats awesome,

 

[Square Ninja]

creating "synthetic" mono-cellular organisms is a far cry from creating superhuman babies

 

[Jozi]

Cure for cancer?
Enhanced aesthetic limbs?
Real cyborgs?
So many new options...

 

[Dogenzaka]

You guys are getting too excited too quickly.
This is amazing, but at this point they just created DNA and implanted it in a cell. We've got a ways to go before creating organisms.

 

[Square Ninja]

if anything this will bring us nanomachines long before we can cultivate multicellular organisms

 

[Phoenix]

This is amazing, but at this point they just created DNA and implanted it in a cell. We've got a ways to go before creating organisms.

Just created DNA =/? DNA is what separates species one from the other. We basically invented a whole species out of nothing. Must we also create our own membrane and organelles before we can say we created an organism? What's the point of that?

 

[Dogenzaka]

What's the point of that?

To say "We created a cell" not just "We created DNA", lol.

 

[Phoenix]

Seems a bit silly, no? The DNA transformed the original cell into the cell the DNA had stored in it anyway.

 

[Dogenzaka]

I guess, but without that host cell it would just be floating DNA in a petri dish so I don't consider it the same xD.

 

[Kazuma]

This is amazing, they can grow limbs and organs to the people who need it. Or create some organisms more efficient in cleaning bio wastes. But I would lol if someone made a Resident Evil monsters in a basement somewhere with this technology.

 

[Cyborg009]

so it finally happened. i never thought i'd live to see this day come.

 

[E.J.]

This was a triumph~

Sorry, wrong thread.

But thats awesome,

I’m making a note here: huge success~

Yeah this artificial cell thing which I don't fully grasp seems pretty cool.