{"id":263,"date":"2007-08-14T07:13:58","date_gmt":"2007-08-14T11:13:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=263"},"modified":"2008-08-05T19:08:04","modified_gmt":"2008-08-05T23:08:04","slug":"famous-last-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=263","title":{"rendered":"Famous last words"},"content":{"rendered":"

Creating man-made life in the lab is possible within the decade, according to this article<\/a>. There are some obstacles to overcome, but scientists around the world aren’t letting those problems stop them. A biological chemist here in Florida is daring to poke around the genetic alphabet, so to speak.<\/p>\n

In Gainesville, Fla., Steve Benner, a biological chemist at the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution is attacking that problem by going outside of natural genetics. Normal DNA consists of four bases \u00e2\u20ac\u201d adenine, cytosine, guanine and thymine (known as A,C,G,T) \u00e2\u20ac\u201d molecules that spell out the genetic code in pairs. Benner is trying to add eight new bases to the genetic alphabet.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Could science fiction become reality, with man-made lifeforms taking over the Earth?<\/p>\n

Bedau said there are legitimate worries about creating life that could \u00e2\u20ac\u0153run amok,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but there are ways of addressing it, and it will be a very long time before that is a problem.<\/p>\n

“When these things are created, they’re going to be so weak, it’ll be a huge achievement if you can keep them alive for an hour in the lab,” he said. “But them getting out and taking over, never in our imagination could this happen.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sounds like famous last words to me …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Creating man-made life in the lab is possible within the decade, according to this article. There are some obstacles to overcome, but scientists around the world aren’t letting those problems stop them. A biological chemist here in Florida is daring … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-4f","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1372,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1372","url_meta":{"origin":263,"position":0},"title":"Conceptual Framework for New Science Education Standards","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"July 19, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The long anticipated report \"Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas\" is now available for downloading\u00c2\u00a0from The National Academies Press. You can download the \"prepublication PDF\" for free. Also see Curriculm Matters blog, Education Week article (it looks like you have to subscribe to see the\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1227,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1227","url_meta":{"origin":263,"position":1},"title":"Creationism pops up in textbook adoption process","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"September 22, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Creationism has become a possible minor issue here in Florida recently as instructional materials committees conduct a scheduled review of materials and recommend new textbooks for the state's classrooms. A book meant for marine science classes contained some unusual language that raised red flags for a couple of members of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Textbooks"","block_context":{"text":"Textbooks","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=26"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=27","url_meta":{"origin":263,"position":2},"title":"Academies of Sciences statement on evolution","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 22, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's a very well-stated, clear declaration about evolution (pdf) from 67 national acadamies of science. Bottom line: teach it, it's science, it's important. We, the undersigned Academies of Sciences, have learned that in various parts of the world,within science courses taught in certain public systems of education, scientific evidence, data,and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In the Classroom"","block_context":{"text":"In the Classroom","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1870,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1870","url_meta":{"origin":263,"position":3},"title":"05.24.13 This & That","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"---> Kentucky state senator doesn't like evolution and climate change in new national Next Generation Science Standards. Science Standards Draw Fire From Ed. Leader in Kentucky Senate It remains to be seen what influence Sen. Wilson will have with the state board of education in Kentucky. The board is expected\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 20 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 20 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1870#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":580,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=580","url_meta":{"origin":263,"position":4},"title":"Keeping up with evolution discoveries","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 8, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Scientists map the genetic makeup of the platypus SYDNEY, Australia -- With a bill like a duck, a tail like a beaver and snake-like venom hidden in heel spurs, the platypus could be the result of some strange genetic experiment. And it is, scientists say: evolution. A scientific team published\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 20 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 20 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=580#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":903,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=903","url_meta":{"origin":263,"position":5},"title":"It’s the little things that matter","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 13, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"-- Steve Robinson, an Ormond Beach environmental chemist, couldn't find a Darwin Day event near him, so he came up with his own. His small group built a line of 200 sea turtle sand sculptures in honor of Darwin's 200th birthday. -- UCF Program Helps Students 'EXCEL' In Math and\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}