Craig Venter & Synthetic Life Debate - BBC Newsnight & BBC America Reports

[guitarlizard19]

I do not think that you should say "man-made fictional concept"s as applied to religion. I am a Christian and I think this is a great discovery, and yes it is playing God I guess. But why not, if you believe in God you should believe that if He has left us here to ourselves then we have dominion of what He has left us with. If there is no God, then oh well, then just keep on pursuing the science. I do not see either way this science is wrong, just potentially dangerous like any great science.

[ZachRose88]

The idea of "playing god" is absolutely silly. We shouldn't be bound in any way by man-made fictional concepts. However, real ethical implications should be discussed of course.

[RuniScience]

@ZachRose88 > To me at least the "playing God" critisism does "not compute" , since by the "terms & conditions" described in most religious texts, we perforce "play God" each and every time we create a new life ...even our own children. But this is an Ecumenical question that has outwitted even the greatest thinkers in human history ... Ethical concerns are of course always warranted and to me at least welcomed. One point that I find lacking in this debate is the fact that this is a milestone..

[RuniScience]

@RuniScience > ZachRose88 2) No idea how many here have actually worked in the field, but for public viewers and scientists alike a new field permeates this science all across the internet & beyond ... The question if our genetic make-up is truly defined by the sequence of molecules alone (see e.g. "The Ghost in our Genes") ... As such this "Experiment" clearly shows that the DNA sequence alone is sufficient to promote a lifeform... Its a milestone allright ... Cheers, Runi Toconillo

[HumanSayNo]

The day the earth stood still....

[RuniScience]

@HumanSayNo > You're writing the same novel as me ? How did you get th Planet to stand still ?? I used planetary elements & in my story the difficulty lies in grtting it to rotate again...

[HumanSayNo]

@RuniScience - Im referring to the Hollywood movie and the nanobots that wipe all traces of humanity from the face of the earth.

[killerboyfoolz]

Make me a child from my DNA please =)

[Stopdropburn]

There is absolutely a beneficial horizon in the light of this revolutionary breakthrough, but the reality is they've gone beyond the safety of the laboratory and much further than the good intentions of yet another "flu vaccine technique" by a creating self-replicating organism that evolves and adapts and even reanimates dead cells and introducing it to our ecosystem. Synthia is active both in water and air and is not affected by pressure or temperature elements. Watch the Gulf videos people.

[kingplatoedwinkaku]

listen stop questioning the societal implications of genetic engineering. Life is created constantly in a random matter. If we interfere its no different than the 1,000,000s of new' microorganisms found every year in the ocean.

[Stopdropburn]

@kingplatoedwinkaku How can these experiments be considered "no different"? Only a person who hasn't actually studied and watched the effects of Synthia and what these organisms are actually doing in the Gulf and surrounding water systems could be that short-sighted. Any amount of real research into this project will provide substantial evidence of being very different. Synthia has already been successfully tested and shown to reanimate dead E.Coli bacteria....this is dangerous and wrong.

[HybridD91]

@Stopdropburn And watch you be the one of the first to want the benefits of genetic engineering. People like you are dangerous and wrong. You stand in the way of progession.

[RuniScience]

@HybridD91 > its too late to debate if Genetic Engineering is right or wrong.. We were doing it for thousands of years without knowing what we were doing & if we hadn't we would've probably gone the way of the Dodo a long time ago (I mean we would be extinct..).. now we do it intentionally & think we know what we are doing but I admit it is a new frontier and as always "the greater the potential, the greater the risk" ... I can only pray that we find the right balance between Risk and Potential