Artificial Life — A Step Forward

[Anacoluthon64]

Scientist Craig Venter Has Created Artificial Life.

'Luthon64

 

[jasonpatterson]

I don't see how this is artificial life. Venter got a yeast genome to survive inside a bacterial cell membrane. It's interesting, and I'm sure it was difficult to accomplish, but that doesn't make it artificial any more than making Dolly the sheep was creating artificial life (or, if you prefer, convincing a sheep genome to live in a cow cell would be artificial.)

 

[Unlike a Bull]

Hmm, I guess it depends on whether or not the bacteria was living when the DNA was implanted. If so, then I don't think that this warrants being called artificial life. Maybe something more like creating a new species. But, if everything was dead, but became alive when it got assembled, then I would consider that artificial life. Something like creating a Frankenstein monster, but more bacteria like and less monster like.

 

[jasonpatterson]

But again, if I suck the nucleus out of an egg cell and substitute the nucleus from another animal (say a horse egg and a donkey nucleus) then that is not substantially different than what seems to have been done here. This appears to have been technically more challenging, of course, and the two species were radically different, but otherwise it was the same type of experiment.

I guess for something to truly be artificial life in my eyes, it would have to be constituted entirely from parts, that is, a manmade nucleus, a manmade genome, manmade cellular machinery, all of that sort of thing. Cobbling together functional parts of a variety of organisms is interesting, but I just don't see that as creating life.

 

[dlorde]

This is just the first step on the way. His team have already decided on a minimal genome and are planning to assemble it in vitro, then insert it into an empty cell membrane. I guess the step after that is to construct the cell membrane in vitro...

 

[Dr. Trintignant]

But again, if I suck the nucleus out of an egg cell and substitute the nucleus from another animal (say a horse egg and a donkey nucleus) then that is not substantially different than what seems to have been done here. This appears to have been technically more challenging, of course, and the two species were radically different, but otherwise it was the same type of experiment.

I guess for something to truly be artificial life in my eyes, it would have to be constituted entirely from parts, that is, a manmade nucleus, a manmade genome, manmade cellular machinery, all of that sort of thing. Cobbling together functional parts of a variety of organisms is interesting, but I just don't see that as creating life.

How deep do you have to go, though? To quote Carl Sagan: "If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe." Obviously, it's a bit too much to ask for nucleosynthesis. But what about amino acids, or proteins, or DNA strands, or whatever? Seems to me that there's a spectrum of what we could call "artificial life" and that this is an early but legitimate step in that direction.

- Dr. Trintignant

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

How deep do you have to go, though? To quote Carl Sagan: "If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe." Obviously, it's a bit too much to ask for nucleosynthesis. But what about amino acids, or proteins, or DNA strands, or whatever? Seems to me that there's a spectrum of what we could call "artificial life" and that this is an early but legitimate step in that direction.

- Dr. Trintignant

Venter's research is pretty cool.

There's also exciting work being done at lower level, and more "artificial" than rebuilding from code an existing organism. (By the way, Venter did the same thing with a virus, then simple bacteria--literally rebuilding the organism based on the download of the genome.)

For example, in vitro creation of self-replicating RNA:

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/1167856

 

[jasonpatterson]

How deep do you have to go, though? To quote Carl Sagan: "If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe." Obviously, it's a bit too much to ask for nucleosynthesis. But what about amino acids, or proteins, or DNA strands, or whatever? Seems to me that there's a spectrum of what we could call "artificial life" and that this is an early but legitimate step in that direction.

- Dr. Trintignant

If someone wanted to build a genome entirely out of genes from various creatures and managed in the end to produce something living, OK, but what we have here is an entire genome moved from one cell membrane to another, with some modification (methylation) to make the process work.

If it's going to be considered living, it needs to be able to produce its own materials, or at least be able to gather those materials from its environment. I don't mean to say that it wouldn't be artificial unless someone sat down and built all of the organic compounds required from raw elements, that would be insane.

 

[Dr. Trintignant]

If someone wanted to build a genome entirely out of genes from various creatures and managed in the end to produce something living, OK, but what we have here is an entire genome moved from one cell membrane to another, with some modification (methylation) to make the process work.

If it's going to be considered living, it needs to be able to produce its own materials, or at least be able to gather those materials from its environment. I don't mean to say that it wouldn't be artificial unless someone sat down and built all of the organic compounds required from raw elements, that would be insane.

Again though, that's just a matter of degree. This step moves an entire genome. Perhaps the next step is to combine two genomes. The logical conclusion is that one day we'll be able to assemble a genome via computer, hit the "print" button, and have a DNA sequence assembled and injected into an empty cell.

Anyhow, I think that getting any foreign DNA transplanted into a new cell is a critical first step in this chain of technology. Whether we call it artificial life or not is just semantics, but I think it's clear that when "real" artificial life is created (by your definition), the research we're talking about will be considered an early breakthrough in the field.

- Dr. Trintignant

 

[Dr. Trintignant]

Venter's research is pretty cool.

There's also exciting work being done at lower level, and more "artificial" than rebuilding from code an existing organism. (By the way, Venter did the same thing with a virus, then simple bacteria--literally rebuilding the organism based on the download of the genome.)

For example, in vitro creation of self-replicating RNA:

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/1167856

Very neat.

I have to wonder how closely they're approximating the initial development of life on Earth. Self-replicating DNA/RNA with an assembly of helper enzymes may well be one of the stages of life even before cells.

- Dr. Trintignant