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I subscribe to this list one
and half a year ago. I do not participate in it because I only can read English.
I don’t speak nor do write it. I live in Colombia South America, and my
native language is Spanish. I have learned a lot from all of you. Thanks very
much. I am reading and studying
Life Itself and Essays on Life Itself. The following appears today
in the WSJ. The full story is in www.edge.org Along with two veteran
collaborators, Dr. Venter hopes to become the first to whip up a made-to-order
bacterium. Normally, new life is created via reproduction, with each generation
passing its genes on to the next. But Dr. Venter aims to bypass that process by
manufacturing a complete set of genes, or genome, of a single-cell bacterium in
his laboratory. This man-made genome would be installed inside a bacterium
whose own genes have been removed. By creating such a life form,
Dr. Venter’s researchers think they may come closer to understanding what
life is and how scientist can manipulate it for the benefit of humankind. New
artificial species could open avenues for industrial production of drugs,
chemicals or clean energy. “This is the step we
have all been talking about. We’re moving reading the genetic code to
writing it,” Dr. Venter says, swiveling in his chair at his sprawling
scientific headquarters here. (Antonio Regado, “Next
Dream for Venter: Create Set of Genes From Scratch”, The Wall
Street Journal, June 29, 2005; Page A1. |