From several different sources today, but I'll use the one from The Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/may/20/craig-venter-synthetic-life-form

While I find this work fascinating, it's a bit disturbing that it was done at a private, for-profit institute and that Dr. Venter and his company have already patented over 300 genes. Specifically, how on earth will we regulate the production and distribution of novel organisms? What happens when an organism that has *never* existed naturally in the environment gets loose and let's say just for the sake of argument, it produces toxins or is pathogenic and it has a competitive advantage compared to native flora in a given area? The 20th-21st centuries have, so far, been one disaster after another with regard to invasive species fouling ecosystems, and that's just the eukaryotic organisms...

Granted, all of these problems can and do crop up with regard to existing microorganisms, but the capacity for novel ones to do so *and the scientific community being hamstrung in its attempts to deal with the results because of proprietary issues* is both worrisome and a real concern.

Thoughts on private industry (or goverment labs, for that matter), 'playing god' with regard to the creation of totally novel prokaryotic organisms?

Regards,
Nydia

This is how the Cylons got started!


Really. a bit over my head but i would use the word scary as hell in place of worrisome. how far from some sort of 12 monkeys scenario does this leave us?

I was going to post this one http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127010591&ft=1&f=1001 from NPR.


But this isn't really a new life form, says Jim Collins, a synthetic biologist at Boston University. "Its genome is a stitched-together copy of the DNA of an organism that exists in nature." Collins says Venter has created something remarkable, but it's not creating life.


It seems more conservative and am curious what you think on this comment.

While I find this work fascinating, it's a bit disturbing that it was done at a private, for-profit institute and that Dr. Venter and his company have already patented over 300 genes.

Good for him. May he keep up the good work. And people say Americans can't innovate anymore. Some other nation was going to do it eventually regardless of whatever stupid controversy results.

If the government funded it than people would claim their tax payer dollars wee being spent to usurp God.

Sorry Nydia. I have to disagree with you. This new bacteria and the science developed along with its creation has too many benefits and that is all it is. A bacteria. If it could be used to eat all the oil out of the Gulf of Mexico in a month instead of 30 years, than the question of morality would be reversed. Granted, this is not what this one bacteria is for, since it has been hinted at it would be used for fuel and medical purposes. Exxon was a major backer of the project. If it can undo some dependance on foriegn oil or help control carbon emissions that are projected to be a civilization toppling event, then why not?

Science is a tool. If employed correctly its is a great servant to Humanity. A pipe wrench can fix a leak, or bash someone's skull in but the wrench is not the one going on trial for murder when its all said and done.

The pipe wrench is not self-replicating. The principle danger we keep seeing over and over again, is that there will be unintended consequences to the release of these organisms, and the only prevention against that is many, many people looking at what happens when they are introduced to environs. When that happens behind closed door, you have monetary motivations to avoid and ignore those sorts of checks.

There was a case just in the last year of a fully rubberstamped GM plant that when taken out of the lab promptly killed off every nitrogen fixing fungus it came in contact with, rendering the plots fallow until it was removed. I'll have to dig that up again.