From Reading to Writing the Genetic Code

Lecture by geneticist and A.D. White Professor-at-Large J. Craig Venter

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Cornell University
• Craig Venter
• genetic code
• lecture

[Piquarian]

It must be averred that his creation of the synthetic chromsome and other courses of action taken to make it possible beforehand is not only the quintessence of ingenuity, but also a great and undeniable boon to humankind if harnessed for its betterment. The religiose may reprimand him for 'playing God', which is absurd, but I found his response to this fairly amusing - 'We're not playing'

[tommytalks77]

People must stop being hypocrites and grow up.

Religion has done nothing but harm to humanity while science, the scientific method and people like Craig Venter have tripled human lifespan since the days of jeebus, have created vaccines that saves millions every year, developed the modern agriculture methods without which we, city dwellers, would all starve to death etc.

It's absurd and immoral to use religion and myths to try to stop the development of knowledge that will benefit humanity.

[Lafo247]

@Piquarian Dem sum big wurds.... But I still tink Gawd did it

[NorthForkFisherman]

@HWCWTD Now that is a very good point. Bioweapons are definitely on the table for rogue states and other entities that don't mind collateral damage. Since the science is brand new, just the threat of disease can cause mass panic, especially when coupled with the sensationalist MSM. Remember the H5N1 panic last year?

[NorthForkFisherman]

@HWCWTD Roughly speaking? That whole genomes, genes, and naturally occuring variants could not be patented but that engineered genes, products, and techniques could be. The case law is still being decided in some cases, and since I'm not a lawyer I can't speak to details. SciAm has run more than a few editorials on both the law and ethics we're discussing here.

[HWCWTD]

@eldadevata Yeah, but i think he's more concerned about this information being let out to the world en mass and openeing up the real possibilty of tailor-made pathogens or biologigal weapons specified for certain individuals, leaving no defense what-so-ever.

[HWCWTD]

@NorthForkFisherman What did the courts say exactly?

[NorthForkFisherman]

@eldadevata Greedy and crass (and struck down by the courts) to be sure. But does that qualify as evil? Hardly. Now had we waited for the government to get off it's collective asses and sequence the damn thing we might still be waiting. And given "govenment expertise" ended up with a sequence that was more a chimaerical being than what a human actually is. Venter is a businessman as well as scientist. I don't fault him for at least trying, but I do applaud the courts more for their good sense.

[eldadevata]

@NorthForkFisherman This is the person that wanted to patent the human genome to be owned and commercialised by one company.

Not a very altruistic idea I might add.

If he and his team would have been successful, the scientific progress would have been delayed by decades.

And this delay would have had even worse effect on medical research and therapy.

[SenNoSenProject]

thanks for sharing this