Wednesday, October 01, 2008
If you've never heard of the exciting field of synthetic biology, you're not alone, but you might want to get wise to the field's controversial promise to create life from scratch.
About two-thirds of U.S. residents are clueless as well, having never heard of synthetic biology.
Only 2 percent in a new telephone survey of 1,003 adults said they have heard a lot about the work, which crosses biology with technology and promises to create forms of life that Nature never thought of.
Synthetic biologists engineer and build or redesign living organisms, such as bacteria, to carry out specific functions.
The field is a scientific playground for the genetic code, where previously nonexistent DNA is formulated in test tubes.
By taking genetic engineering to the extreme, synthetic biologists aim to make life in the lab.
The promise is that the novel organisms will fight disease, create alternative fuels or build living computers.
Already, researchers have transplanted genetic material from one microbe species into the cellular body of another, described last year as the living "equivalent to converting a Macintosh computer to a PC by inserting a new piece of software.""We face daunting problems of climate change, energy, health, and water resources," a group of 17 leading scientists in the field stated last year. "Synthetic biology offers solutions to these issues: microorganisms that convert plant matter to fuels or that synthesize new drugs or target and destroy rogue cells in the body."
Now you know.
But why should you care?
For one, the field "is potentially controversial because it raises issues of ownership, misuse, unintended consequences and accidental release," according to a report earlier this year commissioned by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council in England.
In a nutshell, some fear microscopic lab freaks might escape and wreak havoc.
To Read the Whole Article Go To:
| Member Comments |
 |
 |
||
www.poedpatriot.blogspot.
com......................
"But war, in a good cause, is not the greatest evil which a nation can suffer. War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse. When a people are used as mere human instruments for firing cannon or thrusting bayonets, in the service and for the selfish purposes of a master, such war degrades a people. A war to protect other human beings against tyrannical injustice – a war to give victory to their own ideas of right and good, and which is their own war, carried on for an honest purpose by their free choice – is often the means of their regeneration. A man who has nothing which he is willing to fight for, nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. As long as justice and injustice have not terminated their ever-renewing fight for ascendancy in the affairs of mankind, human beings must be willing, when need is, to do battle for the one against the other." - John Stuart Mill
Member Since: 4/30/2008
Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | Blogging Policy | Feedback | Jobs | TV Ratings | Advertise with Us | News Corp
News | Weather | Traffic | Sports | Business | Entertainment | Health | Blogs | Metro
Features | People | Morning Show | Politics | Contact Us
Many pages in this Fox Television Stations, Inc. web site feature links to other sites, some of which are operated by companies unrelated to Fox Television Stations, Inc. Fox Television Stations, Inc. has no control over the content or availability of any linked site.
TM and (c) 2008 Fox Television Stations, Inc., and its related entities. All rights reserved. Any reproduction, duplication, or distribution in any form is expressly prohibited
Powered by Fox Interactive Media
