• Question: Do you think we will ever be able to create life im not talking about frakenstein kinda like a man made vegtable

    Asked by one23 to David, Luna, Mark, Melanie, Probash on 21 Mar 2011 in Categories: .
    • Photo: David Pyle

      David Pyle answered on 19 Mar 2011:

      It depends what you mean by ‘create life’, but humans have been modifying plants, animals and other organisms for thousands of years (e.g. initially agriculture, and now in laboratories as well). Modern advances mean that there is considerable potential for extending this in the future – but society will presumably place limits on where science goes. If you mean will we ever be able to mix together some chemicals in the lab, and turn it into something living, then I suspect not. Working out how and where life began is a fascinating challenge: my favoured idea is in a pool of warm mud on an underwater volcano.

    • Photo: Luna Munoz

      Luna Munoz answered on 19 Mar 2011:

      Well, we can do all sorts of things with genetic modifications, but I don’t think we will create life. It was amazing that someone was able to create amino acids, which are found in living organisms, back in 1953. However, while the primordial soup that was created in 1953 seemed to have the early building blocks of life, life has never been created. It’s an interesting question!

    • Photo: Melanie Stefan

      Melanie Stefan answered on 21 Mar 2011:

      At the moment, scientists are working on the first synthetic species of bacterium, Mycoplasma laboratorium. It’s kind of a proof of concept to see whether it is possible to create life. They are not quite there yet, but I believe it’s only a matter of time.

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