Florida Lab Gets Pregnant 149
Synthetic Biology, a relatively new field, is seeking to find out what happened to a bunch of chemicals to make them capable of supporting a metabolism, replicating, and evolution. A Florida lab is showing some of the most promising advancements in this direction with their AEGIS (Artificially Expanded Genetic Information System) experiment. "AEGIS is not self-sustaining, at least not yet, and with 12 DNA building blocks -- as opposed to the usual four -- there's little chance it will be confused with natural life. Still, Benner is encouraged by the results. 'It's evolving. It's doing what we designed it to do,' said Benner, a biochemist with the Gainesville, Fla.-based Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution. In addition to providing an example of how alien life might be cobbled together, synthetic biology has a broad array of uses on the home front."
Re:grey goo (Score:3, Informative)
Green goo actually, or maybe grayish-green goo would be more appropriate.
On a more realistic note, those 12 artificial nucleotides they seem to have put in there probably aren't found in the environment make it unlikely anything to come out of it will get very far.
I do of course realize that "probably" is an issue for some people who seem convinced that any possibility, no matter how small, when it comes to biological nightmare scenarios is an absolute certainty (specifically biology ones, they're more rational when it comes to the chances of the hadron collider destroying the earth). Suprised no one has tagged "iamlegend" or "whatcouldpossiblygowrong" yet.
Re:OT: online news (Score:3, Informative)
Yeah she was wearing a little pink number and she was HOT!
Re:Um, guys.... (Score:3, Informative)
I mean no offense here, but I think you're confused about what ID is, and what its purpose is. It's much easier of you just assume ID = Creationism and the attempt to get said Creationism into public schools. See here: See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitzmiller_v._Dover_Area_School_District#Decision [wikipedia.org]
ID is not merely the belief in a god that could have designed the universe (plenty of theists acknowledge evolution. The entire Catholic church, for instance). ID is dependent on the creation stories in Genesis, and is strictly anti-evolution. It is a method of promoting the teachings of particular religion, which is something the Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized.
The term Intelligent Design is, well, "designed" to cause a person to think, at first glance, "oh, they just believe in a creator. That's not so strange". Whereas in reality there is no question that this has to do with Biblical Creationism, at the expense of properly teaching mainstream science in schools.
What I mean to say is, it's not logic, it's just rhetoric. Don't read too much into it. By attempting to refute it on logical grounds, you do it the service of acknowledging that it's worth your time. Those people are liars and they know it, and the courts know it too. At this point we can just sit back and laugh as they flounder.