Posted on 05/13/2014 4:27:26 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued
Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute, or TSRI, in San Diego, California, have created a new living organism whose genetic code includes six letters, instead of four, and that added pair of DNA letters, researchers say, is “not found in nature.”
In a study, published in Nature on Wednesday, scientists described the new bacterium as the first life form to contain artificial genetic building blocks. According to them, the new finding could lead to organisms that might help scientists develop medicines or industrial products that are impossible to produce using cells containing only natural genetic code, The New York Times reported.
“Life on Earth in all its diversity is encoded by only two pairs of DNA bases, A-T and C-G, and what we’ve made is an organism that stably contains those two plus a third, unnatural pair of bases,” Floyd E. Romesberg, a TSRI associate professor who lead the research team, said in a statement. “This shows that other solutions to storing information are possible and, of course, takes us closer to an expanded-DNA biology that will have many exciting applications—from new medicines to new kinds of nanotechnology.”
As part of the study, the scientists at TSRI added a pair of artificial “X” and “Y” nucleotides to the genetic code of the common bacterium E. coli, and so far, the bacteria appears to be reproducing normally, replicating the X-Y pair along with the natural nucleotides, the NY Times reported.
According to the scientists, their next step would be to demonstrate the in-cell transcription of the new, expanded-alphabet DNA into the Ribonucleic acid (RNA) that feeds the protein-making machinery of cells.
“In principle, we could encode new proteins made from new, unnatural amino acids—which would give us greater power than ever to tailor protein therapeutics and diagnostics and laboratory reagents
(Excerpt) Read more at trove.com ...
This is so damned scary, I can’t find the words. But I know what it could easily lead to.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6wWPwz4BAM
The atheist was telling God that he could create life from dust. God said “go ahead.” The atheist bent over to pick up some dust, God said “get your own dust.”
You know, THERE ARE BETTER THINGS TO BE WORKING ON, Dr. Frankenstein!!
Gee, Bendy, I just hope this new life they created doesn't like to drink beer... 
'cause that would mean less for me!
Well, big, I just hope this 'new life' doesn't like... 
to eat metal--
Why do I think this is not a good thing to do?
The only question remains: Will the Pope baptize it?
“The measure of a man is what he does with power.” ~Plato
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Good movie of its type. Some classic scenes here.
As for scariness, no, this business of new DNA elements is not scary. It is a long way from making extensions to DNA elements to making them DO anything.
Sort of like the difference between adding new letters to the English language, which is pretty trivial, and of using them to write a work of literature where the new words they make up are used to unique effect.
When they brought up the fact that they inserted X and Y nucleotides into the bacterium it made me think of X and Y chromosomes and wonder if this involves creating life forms that can self replicate that’s paid for by government funds. I could see Obama authorizing funds to create self-replicating faggots that don’t need to procreate with the opposite sex. This is where we are even if this isn’t true yet you know they are working on it...
Unless she’s a nun, somewhere in this world there is a very, very happy man.
LMAO!
I'm pretty sure that got answered. If it wants to be baptized, the pope will baptize it.
Yes!...USA...
+1.
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