 | Scientist creates life, patents itOctober 9th, 2007 |
No, it’s not a headline from The Onion.
Our world gets more science-fictional every day…
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The world is getting to be a much much more interesting place.
He said Mr Venter was creating a “chassis on which you could build almost anything…”
You have to admit though…that sounds a little familiar wouldnt you say? 
In a lot of ways, that’s pretty frightening.
My first thought was, “How will this bacteria interact with other life? How does he know it’s ‘safe?’” He’s constructed this chromasome… does he have some idea of what the end result is going to be or is this something more like the mad science approach of “let’s do it and see what happens?”
The journalist who wrote this story wasn’t doing a proper job of it.
If he patents it, that means he can sue it for reparations if it reproduces without paying him a royalty.
Richard
Richard Bartle: No doubt RIAA will be on the bacteria’s behind, if it reproduces.
The concerns around “safety” and “will it kill all of us”, I think, is rather “The end is nigh”‘ish. At least at this stage. And if “teh terr0rists” gets their hands on this technology, we’ll most likely be able to create anti-bacteria to combat the evilness.
So I don’t think we’ll be getting “The Stand” or “28 days later” just yet, or ever.
…much more worried about RIAA.
I agree Tomas. The scary thing here is that he is allowed to patent it, not that it is a threat by itself.
By the by, those of us why have been creating “Artificial Life” on computers for years are beginning to feel a bit like we’re going to have to rename our discipline. Or at least start distinguishing between “Digital Artificial Life” and “Wet Artificial Life”.
Companies have put patents on existing life (or at least the code they’ve sequenced) and people have been patenting genetically engineered crops for a long time now. The only thing I thought was surprising was that he created a synthetic chromosome. Very cool stuff.
Yes companies have patented GM crops, and when those crops breed with crops belonging to other farmers, those farmers get sued for I.P. infringement. Not only does genetic information want to be free, but it can make damn sure it is free on its own. That’s why it’s impractical to allow a patent on genes, which is why I said it was scary.
If this guy were just patenting his technique for creating artificial life, that’s fair enough, IMO. But that’s not what it sounds like from the article.
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