Thursday, May 20, 2010

Dr Craig Venter Announces First Synthetic Living Cell





May 20, 2010 on BBC and Channel 4 - Read more
(Thanks to TreVelocita)

14 comments:

  1. This is nice :)

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  2. I knew intelligent design was real.

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  3. How well does this fit in with Kurweil predictions for the future? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Singularity_Is_Near

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  4. On the next episode of  the Venter Bros., the Shoggoth Stalks at Midnight!

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  5. lasers for eyes jacksonMay 21, 2010 at 11:03 AM

    <span>Am I the only person that thinks this is like the fucking moon landing? Man has created life! OH MY SCIENCE!!!</span>

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  6. I agree. Why isn't this being talked about more?
    A crationist claim I've heard my whole life is: "Man has never been able to create life in a labortory!" They can't say that anymore. SCIENCE WINS AGAIN!!!!

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  7. lasers for eyes jacksonMay 21, 2010 at 1:13 PM

    haha I forgot all about that stupid little come back! So true too. I just had a woman at work say," I don't believe in that stuff." I said "you mean like those cells that are multiplying at the Craig Venter Institute as we speak?" Reply: "God is the only one that creates life." Just shows how truth and facts have nothing to do with it.

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  8. We are still few decades away from creating life, all these scientists have done is take one step in that direction. They just created a new DNA and were able to put it inside a cell. It will take them many years to do something usefull with it. Humans have the ability to modify DNA for many years, this is just one more step towards creating a truly new synthetic life from non-living materials.

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  9. ManCreatedGodCreatedHellMay 21, 2010 at 7:52 PM

    <span>I agree that they haven't technically created life>> Additionally, I'd go as far as to say they haven't even made a synthetic cell. They hijacked an existing cell with a synthetic genome and they created an artificial species. 
     
    Still.. part of me wants to say.. suck it religion.</span>

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  10. In this interview Venter is asked directly, "Do you believe in God?"

    "No. Uhhh... I believe the Universe is far more wonderful... uhhh... than just assuming it was made by some higher power."

    He continues, "I think the fact that these cells are software-driven machines and that software is DNA... the secret of life... is pretty miraculous."

    "Uhhh... Wonderful?... miraculous?" Can someone please rationalize his statements for me? Maybe I am misunderstanding.

    It sounds to me as if he is touting the importance of design in creation while claiming to be an Atheist who believes the ENTIRE UNIVERSE was NOT created by a designer but instead happened by random chance. If he truly believes that everything was randomly made from nothing then why doesn't he make it his primary goal to make something from nothing using random choices? Now, that would impress!

    Science cannot disprove God (even though it has been tried continually) yet this man both claims to be a scientist AND has determined that there is no God. Is that because he's so brilliant? I wonder what all of those "imbecilic" scientists who helped develop the Laws of Thermodynamics think about this one's ego?

    In my opinion, if Venter has ever made a brilliant statement it is this one: "Now we're doing it (creating life) in a deliberate design fashion... I think it's much healthier to do it (create life) based on some knowledge and a better understanding of life than to do it blindly and randomly."

    If Venter has proved anything it is that Atheism is a belief determined entirely by emotion and not at all by rational thought.

    Personally, I don't believe this man to be brilliant at all and I've heard Christians called imbeciles for believing in a creator. I won't call Venter an imbecile but he sure couldn't hold up his end of a debate with Aristotle. I would pay for the fuel for the time machine to see that one.

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  11. In the video linked below Venter says no, he doesn't believe in God then dives into the deep realm of irrational thought to explain himself. Maybe an immature, inexperienced young junior high, high school or college student has the kind of thought process necessary to accept this but it certainly does not fall into the category of rational thought.

    http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7076435n

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