Blog@GraceJunction

The subject above is the same headline which was flashed on Sunday Times dated on 07/10/07. This might be a meaty boon for the intellectuals all across the world who are rattling their minds to match steps with a Divine entity! Being a news with global consequences, am sure it must have made headlines in all tabloids. But for all those for whom its going to be inconvenient going through the newspaper, I’m going to present the article in the exact intact but precise form!

“On Saturday, American biologist-Craig Venter told the media that he has built a synthetic chromosome out of laboratory chemicals. A few days from now he is expected to announce the creation of the first new artificial life form on earth”.
To get sense of what this really means, a quick primer on genetics is called for. Every cell in the human body contains a copy of the genome. Venter sequenced the human genome in 2001. And now his claim is that he & his team have figured out the mystery. This is the kind of knowledge that will allow him to create life. Simply put, ‘play God’.” That gives us the hypothetical ability to do things never contemplated before”, he said.

Venter used his knowledge to create Mycoplasma laboratorium, a chromosome that is 381 genes long. When transplanted into a living cell, it is expected to take control of that cell & become a new ‘life form’. Until now, scientists have managed to take the genome out of one cell, put it into another cell & create another new organism. But nobody knew how to create the genome itself. Venter apparently just did that.

Pat Mooney, the director of a Canadian bioethics organisation, said, “Venter is creating a chassis on which you could build almost anything.”

Realizing your stand as that of a mere layman as compared to these so called ‘word-ly and worldly wise’ scientist & his team, how would you counter his school of thoughts?? What are we looking at?

Tags: Artificial Life, chromosome, Craig Venter

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 9th, 2008 at 1:43 am and is filed under Articles, Modern Science, New Findings, Suja. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.