From: "Gary Britt" 

What makes you think I don't see that.  But that laboratory is devoid of
both the host nuclei for that first life form and the intelligent designers
with their computers trying so far without success to overcome the problems
of making something happen with nothing but a puddle of chemicals on the
lab floor.  Yet evolutionists say only a moron would believe that what is
so far impossible to do with human intelligence, super computers and high
tech equipment (not to mention a host nuclei already in existence) can
easily be done by a puddle without all that just on its own given enough
time.

Gary

"Rich Gauszka"  wrote in message
news:43aa27f6$1{at}w3.nls.net...
> What makes you think the universe isn't a rather large laboratory with a
lot
> of time on it's hands?
>
>
> "Gary Britt"  wrote in message
> news:43aa220d$1{at}w3.nls.net...
> > Interesting article.  What this article describes to me is just how
> > impossible it would be for some chemicals laying around in puddle to
> > become
> > the first life form, when you have high tech tools and computers, and
> > intelligent scientists trying to make it happen and describing all the
> > difficulties.  But us morons who think evolution is just a theory and
not
> > absolutely proven are supposed to believe the puddle of chemicals has a
> > better chance of success than a libratory with computers and cellular
> > nuclei
> > already in existence to help things along.
> >
> > Gary
> >
> > "Rich Gauszka"  wrote in message
> > news:43a9f935$1{at}w3.nls.net...
> >> We may soon have the answer to  - will simply synthesizing a chemical
> >> sequence spark life? Although it appears they still have the
chicken-egg
> >> conundrum to overcome
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20051219.wxlife19/BNStory/sp
ecialScienceandHealth/
> >>
> >> Work on the world's first human-made species is well under way at a
> > research
> >> complex in Rockville, Md., and scientists in Canada have been quietly
> >> conducting experiments to help bring such a creature to life.
> >>
> >> Robert Holt, head of sequencing for the Genome Science Centre at the
> >> University of British Columbia, is leading efforts at his Vancouver lab
> >> to
> >> play a key role in the production of the first synthetic life form -- a
> >> microbe made from scratch.
> >>
> >> The project is being spearheaded by U.S. scientist Craig Venter, who
> > gained
> >> fame in his former job as head of Celera Genomics, which completed a
> >> privately-owned map of the human genome in 2000.
> >>
> >> Dr. Venter, 59, has since shifted his focus from determining the
chemical
> >> sequences that encode life to trying to design and build it:
"We're
going
> >> from reading to writing the genetic code," he said in an
interview.
> >>
> >> The work is an extreme example of a burgeoning new field in science
known
> > as
> >> synthetic biology. It relies on advances in computer technology that
> > permit
> >> the easy assembly of the chemical bits, known as nucleotides, that make
> >> up
> >> DNA.
> >>
> >> Several scientific groups are trying to make genes that do not exist in
> >> nature, in hopes of constructing microbes that perform useful tasks,
such
> > as
> >> producing industrial chemicals, clean energy or drugs. Dr. Venter and
his
> >> colleagues are pushing the technology to its limits by trying to put
> >> together an entirely synthetic genome.
> >>
> >> "We have these genetic codes that we have been
determining, so part of
> >> the
> >> proof [that they encode an organism] is reproducing the chromosome and
> >> seeing if it produces the same result," he said.
> >>
> >> Government and scientific bodies in the U.S. have investigated
safeguards
> >> for the new technology, given its potential to yield new pathogens as
> >> weapons of bioterror. Ethicists have raised concerns about humans
> >> altering
> >> the "nature of nature."
> >>
> >> But proponents feel the many benefits of redesigning micro-organisms to
> >> do
> >> human bidding far outweigh the risks.
> >>
> >> The Venter team is starting small, working to construct a simpler
version
> > of
> >> the bacteria known as Mycoplasma genitalium, a common resident of the
> > human
> >> reproductive tract. They hope to determine the minimum number of genes
> >> required to breathe life into an organism.
> >>
> >> M. genitalium is a single-cell bacterium with just one chromosome and
517
> >> genes. But the Venter team is paring the recipe down and believes their
> >> version will be able to survive with as few as 250 to 400 genes -- each
> >> of
> >> which they are making themselves, one chemical piece at a time.
> >>
> >> "I grew up doing that with cars and clocks and radios
and things like
> > that,"
> >> Dr. Venter said. "You take them apart to understand them
and then you
try
> >> and see if you can reassemble them."
> >>
> >> But even if the team can assemble all of the bug's 500,000 DNA
chemicals
> >> (roughly 35,000 has been the record so far), no one knows if the
organism
> >> will be viable. Will simply synthesizing a chemical sequence spark
life?
> >>
> >> "Nobody has ever done it before so absolutely it is a
key hurdle," Dr.
> >> Venter said.
> >>
> >> Dr. Holt, a Vancouver native who worked in the United States with Dr.
> > Venter
> >> until 2002, described it as a "chicken and egg" problem.
> >>
> >> "You need an egg to make the chicken, but you also need
the chicken to
> > make
> >> the egg," Dr. Holt said.
> >>
> >> "So the profound problem is what do you do with this DNA
once you get
it?
> >> How do you turn it into an actual organism? You need the genome to
encode
> >> and make the organism.
> >>
> >> "But the way biology works, you need the organism to
make the genome."
> >>
> >> Dr. Holt and his UBC group are tackling that very problem.
> >>
> >> One option for sparking life in a lab-made genome, he explained, is to
> >> transplant the synthetic DNA into the shell of an existing microbe. But
> >> unlike a human cell, the genetic material of bacteria is not neatly
> >> contained in one nucleus that can be removed and simply replaced with
> >> another.
> >>
> >> "Their chromosomal DNA is floating throughout the entire
organism," Dr.
> > Holt
> >> said.
> >>
> >> So the Vancouver group is researching the use of high-voltage
electricity
> > to
> >> essentially zap open a host bacteria and slowly infuse it with small
> > pieces
> >> of new DNA.
> >>
> >> No method exists to insert large DNA fragments. The UBC experiment
> > involves
> >> breaking down the DNA of Haemophilus bacteria, a bug common to the
upper
> >> respiratory tract, into 19 separate pieces and inserting it into the
> >> shell
> >> of an E. coli, commonly found in the human gut.
> >>
> >> "That's the strategy, though we don't know if it will
work," Dr. Holt
> > said.
> >>
> >> "I thought this was one of the most important problems
and one that we
> >> should get working on here."
> >>
> >> The problem, Dr. Venter said, is worth solving first with bacteria.
> >>
> >> Having launched a company called Synthetic Genomics, Dr. Venter
believes
> >> "the whole world is open" in terms of the
commercial applications of
> >> being
> >> able to build or redesign micro-organisms for specific tasks.
> >>
> >> He insists the main goal of his project to build the first synthetic
life
> >> form, however, is to understand the essence of life, how it evolved and
> > the
> >> essential elements that sustain it.
> >>
> >> "Here we are trying to understand the human genome with
24,000 some odd
> >> genes and 100 trillion cells and we don't know how 300 or 400 genes
work
> >> together to yield a simple living cell," he said.
> >>
> >> "So if we ever have any hope of understanding our own
genome, we need
to
> >> start with something we can actually tear apart, break down and
rebuild.
> > So
> >> we're starting with a four-cylinder engine instead of a space
shuttle."

> >>
> >>
> >
> >
>
>

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