artificial life
Many might associate the term artificial life with the computational field trying to simulate or recreate phenomena related to living systems, the field with ‘neighbours’ such as cellular automata (Conway’s game of life, being a well known example), genetic algorithms etc.
Yet, we also touched upon the field of synthetic biology and ongoing efforts there to create ‘new life from scratch’, from its biochemical components (synthetic genomics).
A few days ago, the well-known microbiologist and genome-researcher Craig Venter, announced to have created a synthetic chromosome. As we mentioned before, Venter hooked up with Nobel laureate Hamilton Smith, “to build from scratch a synthetic organism they want to program at the DNA level to consume carbon dioxide.”
The first breathtaking result of their collaboration is named mycoplasma laboratorium is 381 genes long and consists of 580,000 basepairs of genetic code. It is based upon ‘a simplified version’ of the bacterium mycoplasma genitalium (until 2002 considered to be the organism with the smallest genomic code).
The chromosome will now be injected into an existing bacterial cell, where it will take control of that cell and hence lead to a new form of life. Although not fully artificial, its DNA is. Venter expects to make the breakthrough announcement of ‘the world’s first synthetic lifeform’ within the next few weeks. Craig Venter speaks of:
“a very important philosophical step in the history of our species. We are going from reading our genetic code to the ability to write it. That gives us the hypothetical ability to do things never contemplated before”.
As before, Craig Venter’s, latest achievement will undoubtedly spark debate. Pat Mooney, director of a Canadian bioethics organizations, notes and asks:
“Governments, and society in general, is way behind the ball. This is a wake-up call – what does it mean to create new life forms in a test-tube?”
Via The Guardian
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