I'm not sure I know what you're asking in that first part. Scientists already make DNA sequences and DNA viruses. I'm not well-versed on attempts to create whole artificial organisms, so I wouldn't be able to make a good estimate on when that could be achieved. However I did find this article on one researcher's attempt to create life from the bottom up and this article on development of bacteria modified to incorporate an artificial 21st amino acid in their proteins, touted to be the first "artificial life form." I'm not sure if that description fits, though. Also here, computer programs have been written whose creators describe them as living (you might need to visit www.bugmenot.com to get into that article). They have metabolisms (incorporating numbers given to them), reproduce, and evolve. Some surprising results have emerged from those experiments. Does that help answer your question?

And regarding Hal's take on viruses, I was operating on the more traditional definition of life. I guess if you take the standpoint that the "purpose" of any individual organism is to survive and reproduce, then the only features needed are the actual ability to reproduce and the ability to evolve to aid survival. By a definition like that, I guess you could make the case that viruses are living.

Awesome articles - thanks CD.


- Soul

*Pssst*

CD you aren't supposed to agree with me thats no fun, and yes they don't fit the traditional definition of life, but then they do keep changing that definition, life doesn't have to respire anymore, which i think was one of the traditional criteria.

LIfe doesn't have to respire anymore? Is this a revelation sprung from those extremophiles you love?

didn't it start with sponges? opps no thats the animal vegetable division.

But there are quite a few micro-organisms that don't respire, and well yes some of them may be extremophiles

Hey! Just asking. You don't have to roll those eyes at me

I was rolling my eyes at me.....

*wanders over to a bookcase, discretely tugs the spine of 'Campbell's Biology', desends down the secret stairwell into the lab*



*starts making clone library's*

Hey...could you clone me a trilobite? I'd love to have one as a pet. You don't think their bite is poisonous, do you?

Could be difficult...

Oldest recovered DNA is 30 million years old.

hmm, you would really like the equivalent of a giant water dwelling cockroach as a pet?

And i don't know about the posionous thing?

I'm quite happy that some things are extinct, they are very pretty fossilised, but thinking about having one crawl up your leg while swimming gives me the creeps. What can i say i have an overactive imagination.

I know there is no DNA samples for trilobites. I was just hoping you had some spiffy new technology that could create pet trilobites. (that's what I get for reading Threshold) I'm pretty sure they weren't poisonous either, but it could keep someone from stealing your pet. I just figured a trilobite would potentially be less dangerous to clone than a T-Rex. We all saw how that turned out.

nothing cool and spiffy that i know of, but would be very amazing to see some things alive, hell who am i to think that wanting a trilobite as a pet is weird, i would want a Hallucigenia

It's a pity clones are so unstable (not that anyone knows why exactly that is).

quote:

---

Originally posted by Matt Cable:
I just figured a trilobite would potentially be less dangerous to clone than a T-Rex.

---

Unless trilobytes have psychic attack powers! Must I always be the voice of Goldblum? errr... I mean 'Caution'.


- Soul

The Caitlin R Kiernan book 'Threshold' has got evil trilobites in it. So i'd heed Soulslacks advice here. Unless you want to take over the world.

quote:

---

It's a pity clones are so unstable (not that anyone knows why exactly that is).

---

existenstial angst? i am he but he is me and i am i and he is he but he is i and he is he and i am he and *explode*

quote:

---

Originally posted by Cavenagh:
existenstial angst? i am he but he is me and i am i and he is he but he is i and he is he and i am he and *explode*

---

*starts picturing exploding sheep*

hey i don't even have to use my imagination for that! it's one of my Fav scences in Bad Taste

Article in NYT on Martian ice.

quote:

Three-dimensional images from the Mars Express spacecraft of the European Space Agency suggest that flat, fractured plates near the Martian equator are remnants of ice that floated on a sea just a few million years ago, scientists said on Monday.

The ice, if it turns out to be ice, would fit with assertions that bacteria continue to live on Mars. Liquid water close to the surface, warmed by geothermal energy, could provide an environment for microorganisms.

That water flowed on Mars in the past is well known. The planet's landscape includes giant canyons and dry river valleys. The NASA Mars rovers have found geological evidence for bountiful water early in Mars' history, billions of years ago.

The Mars Express images, however, are the first to offer clues that Mars has had large bodies of water in the geologically recent past. The scientists said the sea, which would have frozen quickly, was about the size of the North Sea and at least 150 feet deep.

The researchers said that the shapes of the ice rafts were preserved in the dusty landscape and that ice might exist beneath the dust.

Dr. Jan-Peter Muller, a professor at University College London who is on the research team, said comparison of the Martian features with similar ones in Antarctica "led us to the inescapable conclusion that what we're looking at is the fossilized remains of pack ice floating on a frozen sea."

This message has been edited. Last edited by: CancerDusk,

Thanks for the article CD

now i really want to work at nasa, how cool would it be to be the first person to find evidence of life in space?

From the BBC
Heavily edited (by me - for reasons of length)

Ancient life thrives in the deep

These bacteria may affect some of the Earth's geological processes
Our planet's murky deep sea sediments are a buzzing hotbed of life, according to a report in Nature magazine.
Scientists suggest between 60 to 70% of all bacteria live deep beneath the surface of the Earth, far from the Sun's life-giving rays.

Some of the new bacteria identified are about 16 million years old, surviving 400 metres below the sea bed.

This hostile habitat might be where life first evolved more than 3.8 billion years ago, researchers believe.

"There is evidence that life evolved in the deep sediments," co-author John Parkes, of Cardiff University, UK, told the BBC News website.

"There is clear evidence that life existed more than 3.8 billion years ago. Although, for there to be a big enough biomass for us to detect it in the rocks, it must have been evolving long before that."

But before that time, the surface of the Earth was a brutal place, battered by space rocks and volcanic eruptions.

So, Dr Parkes thinks deep sediments may have been the kindest place for life to begin.

"It might be that life was developing in the sub-surface long before [3.8 billion years] where it was protected from meteorite impacts," he said. "And as soon as the surface of the Earth became more hospitable, the bacteria were able to move up and colonise it."

These bacteria could effectively be immortal

Evidence of life in ancient rock sediments was found some time ago but, until now, it was assumed that most of it was long dead.

In the past, scientists have stained bacterial cells so they stood out against the sediment background, but that method cannot differentiate between living and dead cells.

Dr Parkes and his team used a new technique that could identify living cells - and they were surprised to find about 30% of the cells in deep sediment samples are in fact alive.

"These bacteria are growing very slowly in the subsurface," said Dr Parkes. "They could effectively be immortal."

Not only do they influence the balance of greenhouse gases - by both producing and consuming CO2 - they also affect some of the Earth's geological processes, Dr Parkes believes.

"Because they play such a major role in the biochemical processes in the subsurface, clearly they are driving lots of the reactions that produce the chemical steady state on the Earth," he said.

"Possibly, we might not have oil and gas formations without them. So the Earth's biosphere and its geosphere are not separate."

How big is the world in terms of blocks like city blocks? and how much money does it cost to make a gram of Antimatter?

quote:

Originally posted by Atari:
...how much money does it cost to make a gram of Antimatter?

*Cold voice on the telephone* "We can get it for you wholesale..."


- Soul