Artificial Life Created

[Bla]

Watch this.
Craig Venter has just created a self replicating bacteria by putting together pieces of DNA. So we've created artificial life, not only an artificial virus, but now also an artificial bacteria.
What do you think about it?

[matty406]

Ahh, i remember seeing this mentioned on the news and i was going to look it up but forgot.

Brb purchasing a batch of DNA

[sean2323]

you know what sucks? all the non-religious people that want to do this are being stopped by idiots saying "dont play god" or "it is a sin to create life!" i say they should ignore those people but the government made it illigal because of all those "dont play god" idiots. meh, i'll just learn how they did that and make life myself.... when i get old enough

[atomic7732]

I think it's bad, because then terrorists are going to learn how to make synthetic viruses, and many will die. THen we will have to make millions of different vaccines, and the world will be a biohazard. Its scary when people make things like this, or discover things like making life.

[Bla]

I think it's more useful than harmful. It can be used by terrorists, but terrorists usually don't have high-tech labs capable of fitting together thousands of pieces of DNA. If terrorists wanted to, they could also nuke the world, but similarly, they don't have the tools to create nuclear weapons.
There is always a risk, but consider how useful these life-creating tools could be. We could nearly instantly create vaccines, we could use this for many beneficial things.

And sean2323, I totally agree with you. Religious "arguments" don't belong anywhere before the imaginary friend(s) in it is(/are) proven to exist.
If they wanted to stop the research, they should find some arguments that apply to reality.