In relationship to a very popular thread I started here, scientists are actually on the brink of creating living matter from nonliving matter! Until the scientific work mentioned in the article is peer-reviewed (scrutinized and successfully reproduced by other disinterested parties) and published in a major science journal, we cannot claim success in this achievement. But according to scientist Jack Szostak, we are very close:
September 8, 2008 — Biologists on the Verge of Creating New Form of Life
A team of biologists and chemists is closing in on bringing non-living matter to life...a lab led by Jack Szostak, a molecular biologist at Harvard Medical School, is building simple cell models that can almost be called life...Szostak's protocells are built from fatty molecules that can trap bits of nucleic acids that contain the source code for replication. Combined with a process that harnesses external energy from the sun or chemical reactions, they could form a self-replicating, evolving system that satisfies the conditions of life, but isn't anything like life on earth now, but might represent life as it began or could exist elsewhere in the universe.
Here is an image of a protocell:
And here is a short animation and narration of a protocell forming from fatty acids:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhUIIONM6A0"]YouTube - A Protocell Forming from Fatty Acids[/ame]
The philosophical and religious implications of this discovery are ENORMOUS!
:rockon:
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September 8, 2008 — Biologists on the Verge of Creating New Form of Life
A team of biologists and chemists is closing in on bringing non-living matter to life...a lab led by Jack Szostak, a molecular biologist at Harvard Medical School, is building simple cell models that can almost be called life...Szostak's protocells are built from fatty molecules that can trap bits of nucleic acids that contain the source code for replication. Combined with a process that harnesses external energy from the sun or chemical reactions, they could form a self-replicating, evolving system that satisfies the conditions of life, but isn't anything like life on earth now, but might represent life as it began or could exist elsewhere in the universe.
Here is an image of a protocell:
And here is a short animation and narration of a protocell forming from fatty acids:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhUIIONM6A0"]YouTube - A Protocell Forming from Fatty Acids[/ame]
The philosophical and religious implications of this discovery are ENORMOUS!
:rockon:
.
op:
