₦airaland Forum

how is this a step to creating life? What they have done is simply create a plasmid DNA encoding the entire bacterial genome . . . scientists are yet to figure out just how many genes make up the human genome . . . besides we are a lot more than just a piece of circular DNA.

BS. a unicellular organism is still considered living. in time, artificial life would be created now that a genome has been built from scratch. 50 years from now, scientists would probably be working on creating the human genome. are u scared that this may challenge the genesis theory??

lots of nigerian engineers lack skill such as using MatLab, Pro-engineer, ANSYS or computer programming knowledge needed in the internet age. the accreditation of Nigerian schools makes people shy a bit away from Nigerian engineerings.

what "proof"? That the earth came about via a big bang? That we evolved from apes?

the big bang is a THEORY not a law. there's proof from the death and creation of stars/planets.

evolution doesn't claim humans evolved from apes. evolutions says humans share the same ancestors and most dna strands with apes. bonobo's have 99% of human DNA. denial is a bitch.

no room for forgiveness . . . "papa" has already cursed them.

so who gave "papa" the magic stick to curse people as he wishes?

Without Faith
Science is Bland

wrong, religion dwells on faith while science dwells on PROOF and research.

Scientists in Maryland yesterday said they had built from scratch an entire microbial chromosome, a loop of synthetic DNA carrying all the instructions that a simple cell needs to live and reproduce.

The feat marks the first time that anyone has made such a large strand of hereditary material from off-the-shelf chemical ingredients. Previous efforts had yielded DNA strands less than one-twentieth the size, and those pieces lacked many of the key biological programs that tell a cell how to stay alive.

On the basis of earlier experiments, the researchers believe the new, full-length loop would spontaneously "boot up" inside a cell, just as a downloaded operating system can awaken a computer -- a potentially historic event that would amount to the creation of the first truly artificial life form.

Team members emphasized that they have not done that yet but expressed confidence that they would do so before the end of the year.

"There are barriers . . . but we are confident that they can be overcome," said J. Craig Venter, who led the effort with Daniel G. Gibson and Hamilton O. Smith at the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville. The work appears in yesterday's online edition of the journal Science.

Venter said the goal is to design novel microbes whose handcrafted genomes endow them with the ability produce useful chemicals, including renewable synthetic fuels that could substitute for oil.

Critics, however, countered that without better oversight of the fledgling field, synthetic biology is more likely to lead to the creation of potent biological weapons and runaway microbes that could wreak environmental havoc.

"Venter is claiming bragging rights to the world's longest length of synthetic DNA, but size isn't everything. The important question is not 'How long?' but 'How wise?' " said Jim Thomas of the ETC Group, a Montreal-based group that has called for a moratorium on the release and commercialization of synthetic organisms pending further public debate.

Venter's team started by determining the precise order of all 580,076 base pairs, or "letters" of DNA code, inside one of the simplest microbes known to science: Mycoplasma genitalium, a bacterium that can infect the human genital tract. The scientists bought small pieces of DNA, then perfected painstaking methods to stitch them together inside bacteria and yeast cells in exactly the right order.

The final product -- 582,970 base pairs in all -- is a near-exact replica of M. genitalium's genome, with a few intentional differences. The team omitted a DNA snippet that allows the microbe to infect other cells, for example, and added extra DNA as "watermarks" to differentiate their construct from the naturally occurring variety.

"It's the first synthetic bacterial chromosome," Venter said. "Every one of those base pairs started as a chemical in a bottle."

George Church, a Harvard geneticist leading competing efforts to develop novel life forms -- not from scratch but by modifying existing bacteria -- said the work marks something less than the dawn of a new era.

"This is not a 'creating life' paper. It is not a test of vitalism. It's an assembly paper," Church said. "The question is: Is it faster or cheaper than other methods? But they don't lay out their economics. They missed an opportunity there."

Venter said he could not provide an estimate of the project's cost.

Venter and others have already made synthetic genomes for viruses, which are about one-hundredth the size of bacterial genomes. Some activists contend that synthetic bacteria pose more dangers because, unlike viruses, they can replicate on their own and can survive a long time in the environment.

Venter said the work was green-lighted by government offices, the National Academies and an independent ethics review board.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/24/AR2008012402203.html

this is a step to creating life. what do the religious folks think

you like it and u are probably turned on by the abuse.

bill richardson would be vp, while john edwards would be AG.

got to agree with kobojunkie. lots of nigeria's seem to be content are scared of complaining about their way of lives.

chad, CAR,niger. the francophone countries seem to be worse than the anglophone ones. chad is a poor country. why are they fighting for king of the garbage heap??

it belongs to the nigerian government but dues should be paid to niger delta. the problem of niger delta is the governance of their state(delta,bayelsa,edo) and not the nigerian government. asking who owns the oil is stupid since oil producing territories overlap niger delta into yoruba and igbo states.

u guys aren't looking 4 a solution. u guys are just looking for someone to blame. i guess it's hard for yall to admit corruption is ingrained in every aspect of nigerian society, even the so-called churches and mosques u attend.

DHL is just being smart. u don't expect the company to continue accruing losses due to bad business activities in nigeria. it's not discrimination but business savvy. it would be discrimination if nigeria had the same corruption level as iceland.

the question should be how much help should mikel obi be given when handling essien.

^^^^^

funny how u absorb ur politicians like igbenideon of any guilt.

there are logical explanations to all these superstitious bull crap. her family may have a medical history with some illness

have u heard of an abortion. or is there no roe vs wade in naija??

If you pay attention, you will realize that part of discovering eradication solution is also part of thoroughly identifying the problems and where the problems are coming from.

the problems comes from everywhere in the country.

it seems nigeria should have more technical institutes like ITT tech

if u have love for ur brothers. u would support a broad corruption eradication program rather than pointing fingers at certain ethnicities.

The ripping of the economy mainly by the Hausa/Fulani and the Yoruba is far more devastating than any 419. This is what needs to be addressed more urgently.

u are right,the western region has benefited greatly from their loot. i mean see how great states like kwara and osun are.