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Holy shit, an organism with 6 base pairs in it's DNA


magley64

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It's a little scary, sure.

I find it VERY exciting.

It's completely new territory.

Jurrasic park was just about recombining DNA into forms it had already been in at one time (or close).

This is something completely different.. Will the new nucleotides give this organism any properties previously inconceivable for life?

Could there be even more nucleotides that could be added?

 

All life on earth, in all of it's diversity is just a code of four letters AGTC, and look at all of the complexity and diversity... you start adding to that alphabet, and nobody knows what could happen...

Very exciting.

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Yes, not based on anything human, and assuming certain characteristics of alien, would not be alien either. Totally artificial, it could be anything or something else all together. A complete unknown. Dangerous territory, don't let it loose.

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Is man separate from nature, or an extension of nature?  Don't be so fast with either answer - philosophers, theologians and scientists have been struggling with this for thousands of years.

 

Brought to this issue: Are we messing with something so fundamental to life as we know it that it could only turn out horribly, or...

 

Are we doing what nature built us to do, perhaps to unlock the next round of planetary evolution?  Like, maybe it'll result in better YouTube cat videos because the cats will be frigging huge and shaped like preying mantises.

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Dangerous territory, don't let it loose.

 

They have thought of this, the Nucleotides that they used are completely synthetic. If not supplied by the lab, the organism cannot produce them on their own.

 

 

 

Is man separate from nature, or an extension of nature?  Don't be so fast with either answer - philosophers, theologians and scientists have been struggling with this for thousands of years.

 

Brought to this issue: Are we messing with something so fundamental to life as we know it that it could only turn out horribly, or...

 

Are we doing what nature built us to do, perhaps to unlock the next round of planetary evolution?  Like, maybe it'll result in better YouTube cat videos because the cats will be frigging huge and shaped like preying mantises.

 

We could do cat sized praying mantii with the current set of base pairs...

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They have thought of this, the Nucleotides that they used are completely synthetic. If not supplied by the lab, the organism cannot produce them on their own.

 

We could do cat sized praying mantii with the current set of base pairs...

 

OK, so, a young, single geneticist is walking through the park and comes upon a mantis-shaped cat, which he promptly picks up (having noticed it was one of his colleagues' escaped creations).  The catmantis speaks in Cantonese (which fortunately he understands), "a naughty man turned me into this form, but I'm actually a smok'n hot Thunder Roads model and will be again if you help me."  The man thinks for a moment, and catmantis senses his hesitation, "I'll be your girlfriend and do whatever you want me to do - we'll have so much fun together before, after, and heck, even in the lab <wink wink>."  Upon further thought, the man places catmantis into his pocket and begins to walk again.  Catmantis, confused, exclaims, "don't you understand what I'm offering to you?  I'll be the hottest gal that any of your friends have ever seen and I'll be yours, all yours!"  To which he says, "hey, I'm a geneticist - I don't have time for a girlfriend, but a talking catmantis is cool!"

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OK, so, a young, single geneticist is walking through the park and comes upon a mantis-shaped cat, which he promptly picks up (having noticed it was one of his colleagues' escaped creations).  The catmantis speaks in Cantonese (which fortunately he understands), "a naughty man turned me into this form, but I'm actually a smok'n hot Thunder Roads model and will be again if you help me."  The man thinks for a moment, and catmantis senses his hesitation, "I'll be your girlfriend and do whatever you want me to do - we'll have so much fun together before, after, and heck, even in the lab <wink wink>."  Upon further thought, the man places catmantis into his pocket and begins to walk again.  Catmantis, confused, exclaims, "don't you understand what I'm offering to you?  I'll be the hottest gal that any of your friends have ever seen and I'll be yours, all yours!"  To which he says, "hey, I'm a geneticist - I don't have time for a girlfriend, but a talking catmantis is cool!"

 

Don't do it, female mantii generally decapitate their mate, and consume their head...

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The blueprints have changed, but the tools and machinery that read the prints have not. In fact there is no evidence provided to suggest the tools know how to interpret the new base pairs in any meaningful way to produce new proteins. Nice try though driving up the price of foil... :)

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They have thought of this, the Nucleotides that they used are completely synthetic. If not supplied by the lab, the organism cannot produce them on their own.

 

The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry
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