“Scientists could create the first new form of artificial life within months after a landmark breakthrough in which they turned one bacteria into another,” Roger Highfield reports for The Telegraph.
“In a development that has triggered unease and excitement in equal measure, scientists took the whole genetic makeup – or genome – of a bacterial cell and transplanted it into a closely related species,” Highfield reports.
“This then began to grow and multiply in the lab, turning into the first species in the process,” Highfield reports.
“The team that carried out the first ‘species transplant’ says it plans within months to do the same thing with a synthetic genome made from scratch in the laboratory,” Highfield reports. “If that experiment worked, it would mark the creation of a synthetic lifeform.”
“The breakthrough occurred at the J Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Maryland, the team reports today in the journal Science. One of its editors called it “a landmark in biological engineering,'” Highfield reports.
“The team wanted to develop a way to move a complete genome into a living cell, chosing the simplest and smallest kind, a bacterium. In all, of the millions of bacteria that they tried the transplant on, it only worked one time in every 150,000,” Highfield reports. “Dr Venter likened it to ‘changing a Macintosh computer into a PC by inserting a new piece of software’ and stressed it would be more difficult in other kinds of cells, which have enzymes to snip the DNA of invaders.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “jay” for the heads up.]
Holy Bacterium Boot Camp, Batman! That poor bacterium: got turned inside-out, went from transparent to opaque, inexplicably increased in complexity, became hideously misshapen, and now it swims backwards! Change it back from a PC into a Mac, Dr. Venkman, er… Venter, change the poor thing back!
Obviously, this news is not Apple-related beyond a passing quote mentioning Mac, but we would have posted this article regardless, as we sometimes do with articles we find extremely interesting. Plus, we got to make fun of PCs while referencing Batman and Ghostbusters, so there’s no way we could pass it up. 
You know where this is all going to end up, don’t you?
Don’t they mean “artificial iLife”?
So he’s created the biological equivalent of Boot Camp?
Sounds like something that happened in my fridge once.
This story is going to pass and be forgotten… and then 100 years from now people will realize that this may have been one of the most important stories in modern biology…
At least it’s a break from the incessant iPhone news.
That’s interesting and a modern marvel. This “new piece of software” is called Boot Camp by the way…
You can tell your grandchildren that you were there when something inside your refrigerator turned into a peecee.
I bet they think they’ve created “life”. It appears to me that all they’ve managed to do was move some machines from one box to another. In a few months they’ll have moved some more machines into more boxes.
“The team that carried out the first ‘species transplant’ says it plans within months to do the same thing with a synthetic genome made from scratch in the laboratory,” Highfield reports. “If that experiment worked, it would mark the creation of a synthetic lifeform.”
Synthetic genome? That sounds really, really creepy and yet exciting. They have no idea what they might be doing… genes are still not well understood. Think of what they might create?
“At least it’s a break from the incessant iPhone news.”
And we sure as hell wouldn’t want that. I mean after all this isn’t a Mac news.. wait, what?
A Mac is a PC now since the Intel switch
The only difference is a attention to hardware quality and a different operating system.
Linux PC, Windows PC, BSD PC, Unix PC, OS X PC.
PC = Personal Computer
Brought to you by ArtificialLifeDailyNews.com..
I agree about the relief from iPhone hype.
Perhaps all the over hype is responsible for the lack of post content seen here recently.
Apple, it seems doesn’t need it’s faithful fanatics like us anymore.
Apple is no longer the underdog it was.
..Not That There’s Anything Wrong With That…!
Well, Macs are very popular as clusters in biological sciences, so it’s not a total reach for this article.
saw that video clip coming from a mile away….. nice one.
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ya kno … all you who are complaining about the “over abundance” of iPhone news as of late ..
have you ever considered the reason for this might be due to the fact that Apple isnt focusing on anything else at the moment ?
I mean… really … are there any new Macs available ?? … New iPods ?? … TVs ??
No !!
This is a very historical week !!
This is ….”The week of the iPhone” !!
Quityerbitchin’ — and enjoy it !!
or …
go back and read Enderle !
Aye, the near future we always overestimate, the far future we always underestimate. It will be a world you’d hardly recognize.
Interesting.
Wow, scientists creating new life…..how Hitlerific
OK, I know you would have to be a biologist to know how the story was sensationalized by the Telegraph…
BUT IT WAS SENSATIONALIZED!!
This is major news, it is being published in Science, but it is not revolutionary. This is an evolution of work that has been going on since the 1970s. Stepping up from single genes all the way to full-genome transplants.
<u>It is not synthetic life.<u>
However, in the long journey towards synthetic life forms, this is an essential step. In fact, it is unlikely for us in the next 5-10 years to see a lab that is able to:
1- get an entire genome made synthetically;
2- get that synthetic genome into a bacterial shell; and
3- get the receiving bacterium to become biologically active
So, it is exciting news, but I will certainly not be remembering this as the turning point in biological sciences when I’m talking to my grandchildren.
This read is something to while away another moment while sitting outside the Apple Store…
I guess I need a life, artificial or otherwise!
Just let me know when Skynet becomes self-aware so I can go get a cabin in the backwoods.
you made me laugh MDN.
Thanks
They removed the genome of one bacteria and put it into another. In computer speak, they’ve done an operating system switch. Is it really shocking that you can replace a windows install with linux?
Its impressive, but not that spectacular. Don’t trust the media to accurately judge the impact of this research — remember they predicted the cures to all diseases when the human genome was sequenced? Here’s a coincidence for you — the same guy who sequenced the genome and hyped it up is the same guy who lead this new research. I’ve been to conferences and heard him speak and he’s a great speaker and an even better salesman. These claims he’s making about “synthetic life” are even less realistic than his previous claims about curing all diseases with the genome sequence.
Shit. Did they ask God or Father Christmas about whether they’re allowed to create life first?