soon design, ‘print’ organisms
Scientists will soon be able to design and print simple organisms using
biological 3D printers says J Craig Venter, the scientist who led the
privatesector's mapping of the human genome. He predicts that new
methods of digital design and manufacture will provide the next
revolution in genetic with synthetic cells and organism tailor-made to
tackle humanity's problems : a toolkit of sequenced genes will be used
to create disease-resistant animals; higher yielding crops; and drugs
that extend human life and boost our brain power.
These ideas have been outlined in Venter's latest book 'Life at the Speed of Light: From the Double Helix to the Dawn of Digital Life' , in which the geneticists asks the age-old question 'what is life?' before detailing the history — and future — of creating the stuff from scratch. For Venter life can be reduced to "protein robots" and "DNA machines" but he also believes that technology will unlock far more exotic opportunities for creating life.
The title of the publication refers to the idea that we may be able to transmit DNA sequences found on Mars back to Earth (at the speed of light) to be replicated at home by biological printers.
"I am confident that life once thrived on Mars and may well still exist there today ," writes Venter. "The day is not far off when we will be able to send a robotically controlled genome-sequencing unit in a probe to other planets to read the DNA sequence of any alien microbe life that may be there." Venter's ideas may sound like science fiction but he has achieved comparable feats in the past.
These ideas have been outlined in Venter's latest book 'Life at the Speed of Light: From the Double Helix to the Dawn of Digital Life' , in which the geneticists asks the age-old question 'what is life?' before detailing the history — and future — of creating the stuff from scratch. For Venter life can be reduced to "protein robots" and "DNA machines" but he also believes that technology will unlock far more exotic opportunities for creating life.
The title of the publication refers to the idea that we may be able to transmit DNA sequences found on Mars back to Earth (at the speed of light) to be replicated at home by biological printers.
"I am confident that life once thrived on Mars and may well still exist there today ," writes Venter. "The day is not far off when we will be able to send a robotically controlled genome-sequencing unit in a probe to other planets to read the DNA sequence of any alien microbe life that may be there." Venter's ideas may sound like science fiction but he has achieved comparable feats in the past.
No comments:
Post a Comment