G'morning Mike, 



 MR> I found it interesting that when watching a story about creating
clones, the operator applied a small voltage of a few 10's of
milli-volts to the newly combined egg cell in order to make it 
"take". At the time it reminded me of Mary Shelly's story of 
Dr.Frankenstein and his created monster for which he also used 
"electricity" to make it alive. I'm making a parallel here because 
both are attempts to create an artificial life. Dolly the sheep 
(the 1st clone) turned out to have genetic damage, showing 
symptoms of old age, and yet being young. Frankenstein's monster 
of course had an insane killer's brain.

And add in the Miller (name?) experiment which ran high voltage 
strikes into broths of inorganic materials to produce organic 
molecules...

 MR> My point being that life starts with a spark of electricity 
which makes inanimate matter become alive. It's simply not enough 
to correctly arrange all the consituent atoms where they belong. 
It would seem the process of life needs a kick start... and good 
genes.

Err ... the link between the quoted attempts and the usual genesis 
seems a little strained to me.  For example,  where would a charge 
of electricity come from at the moment of conception or 
germination ?  And if some discharge were vital to the process,  
could not it be thwarted by providing neutralising electrical 
forces ?

Now that could give new life to that tired disclaimer essential to 
Xmas toys - "Batteries not provided"....

:-)
 
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