Korean Job Discussion Forums

[pkang0202]

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/06/scientists_appl.html

Scientists at the J. Craig Venter Institute have applied for a U.S. patent on a minimal bacterial genome that they built themselves.

This is a bigger deal than cloning. Should we even be creating our own life forms? Granted, right now its only simple proteins however, the future implications could be monumental.

Scenario 1: Scientists can "construct" their own bacteria/viruses to combat life threatening disease. Also, these new life forms could help the human body repair and increase our lifespans.

Scenario 2: Scientists attempt to create a synthetic life form that ends up mutating/evolving to be extremely dangerous. Since it was synthetically created, there is nothing available to combat/destroy such a dangerous life form.


All I know is that this story opens up a whole new slew of sci-fi books. Hundreds of years down the road, will we be "designing" and "creating" new life forms?

This topic raises a lot of interesting "what ifs"

[Treefarmer]

the really scary thing is that just like the sci-fi predicted, we are developing al of these technologies at a time when the world is still so badly organised

it is still a long way off where the nightmare scenario of some sort of evil beast escapes from a lab and destroys the world is possible tho.....

[mindmetoo]

We've invented and discovered a lot of things that can wipe out humans a billion times over. A hammer can kill or build a home. A bit of ricin can kill thousands. It can also be used to target cancer. I'm happy to bet anything with equal potential for good and evil will, given the complex balance we've created in western society, be overwhelming used for good. The public debate finds a way.

[Hollywoodaction]

Hardly news. They've been essentially doing that for years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_engineering

And we aren't dead yet, so you bible thumpers and Luddites can calm down.

[pkang0202]

[Grimalkin]

[the_beaver]

[Hollywoodaction]