ARTIFICIAL LIFE

here's an excerpt of an interesting article i read yesterday. its amazing what this research could potentially produce, and by the sounds of it, within the very near future. i was aware of the miller-urey experiments and some other biochemical research on amino acids and their part in the foundations of early organic molecules, but this is gargantuan leaps and bounds ahead of that. the greatest unknown still on this planet is on the verge of discovery.

Artificial Life Likely in 3 to 10 Years

Aug 19 11:52 PM US/Eastern

"Around the world, a handful of scientists are trying to create life from scratch and they're getting closer. Experts expect an announcement within three to 10 years from someone in the now little-known field of "wet artificial life." "It's going to be a big deal and everybody's going to know about it," said Mark Bedau, chief operating officer of ProtoLife of Venice, Italy, one of those in the race. "We're talking about a technology that could change our world in pretty fundamental ways—in fact, in ways that are impossible to predict."

That first cell of synthetic life—made from the basic chemicals in DNA—may not seem like much to non-scientists. For one thing, you'll have to look in a microscope to see it. "Creating protocells has the potential to shed new light on our place in the universe," Bedau said. "This will remove one of the few fundamental mysteries about creation in the universe and our role."

And several scientists believe man-made life forms will one day offer the potential for solving a variety of problems, from fighting diseases to locking up greenhouse gases to eating toxic waste..."

SETH BORENSTEIN
WASHINGTON (AP)

quite frankly, i'm pretty shocked to only be hearing about this now. i would have thought this would've been huge news. even more surprising is that i've learned about it from an unbiased article interviewing some of the leading scientific researchers and not from any one of the major religions who have got to be sweating it out about all of this. i'd have thought that they'd have tried to make a preemptive strike against these advances like they did with stem cell research or with cloning.

...just something to ponder...