Evolution machine: Genetic engineering on fast forward - life - 27 June 2011 - New Scientist
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21028181.700-evolution-machine-genetic-engineering-on-fast-forward.html
IT IS a strange combination of clumsiness and beauty. Sitting on a cheap-looking worktop is a motley ensemble of flasks, trays and tubes squeezed onto a home-made frame. Arrays of empty pipette tips wait expectantly. Bunches of black and grey wires adorn its corners. On the top, robotic arms slide purposefully back and forth along metal tracks, dropping liquids from one compartment to another in an intricately choreographed dance. Inside, bacteria are shunted through slim plastic tubes, and alternately coddled, chilled and electrocuted. The whole assembly is about a metre and a half across, and controlled by an ordinary computer. Say hello to the evolution machine. It can achieve in days what takes genetic engineers years. So far it is just a prototype, but if its proponents are to be believed, future versions could revolutionise biology, allowing us to evolve new organisms or rewrite whole genomes with ease. It might even transform humanity itself.
BTW, I just came away from an argument with an obnoxiously LOUD individual who insisted that science is "nothing other than a conspiracy directed against God and the Bible and directed by the Devil himself." He waxed especially wroth about genetics and other aspects of biological science, and blew his top over the subject of genetic engineering, such as that described in the above-linked article.
It certainly didn't make him any happier when I said, quite truthfully, that science was not a conspiracy against God and the Bible, nor was it one against those who believe in God and the Bible; that in fact it came into existence for reasons having nothing to do one way or another with the Bible and God, and that people have been pursuing it ever since for those same reasons; and that he didn't have to have a damned thing to do with it if he didn't want to -- the First Amendment guaranteed that, as it guarantees freedom of belief and worship for everyone in this country. When I finally pinned his ears back with a few searching questions, it turned out what really irked him is that scientists don't care about him or anything related to him, whether his religious beliefs or anything else. I guess he was hoping he'd be martyred by being affixed to a board by shattered test-tubes or something. You know, for the greater glory of God. As I told him, though, it's rather hypocritical of him to make use of the products of science, from medical breakthroughs to space-age materials used in all sorts of useful products for the home and industry, if he really believes that science was created by the Devil. How could he possibly love and worship God and, at the same time, embrace the Devil's work in that way? He went off foaming at the mouth, determined to find someone else he could try to dragoon into believing the way he wanted them to.
What I get for living in a place where everyone is aged 62 and up, and most of us have slim to no resources -- people like that abound here. Which is why I stay in my room and go onto the Internet when I'm not outside the building. At least I can pick and choose what I want to deal with on the Internet, but it's hard to pick and choose which of your neighbors you associate with when they follow you down the hall, screaming at you a lot.
Anyway, the article linked above is fascinating. Enjoy.
IT IS a strange combination of clumsiness and beauty. Sitting on a cheap-looking worktop is a motley ensemble of flasks, trays and tubes squeezed onto a home-made frame. Arrays of empty pipette tips wait expectantly. Bunches of black and grey wires adorn its corners. On the top, robotic arms slide purposefully back and forth along metal tracks, dropping liquids from one compartment to another in an intricately choreographed dance. Inside, bacteria are shunted through slim plastic tubes, and alternately coddled, chilled and electrocuted. The whole assembly is about a metre and a half across, and controlled by an ordinary computer. Say hello to the evolution machine. It can achieve in days what takes genetic engineers years. So far it is just a prototype, but if its proponents are to be believed, future versions could revolutionise biology, allowing us to evolve new organisms or rewrite whole genomes with ease. It might even transform humanity itself.
BTW, I just came away from an argument with an obnoxiously LOUD individual who insisted that science is "nothing other than a conspiracy directed against God and the Bible and directed by the Devil himself." He waxed especially wroth about genetics and other aspects of biological science, and blew his top over the subject of genetic engineering, such as that described in the above-linked article.
It certainly didn't make him any happier when I said, quite truthfully, that science was not a conspiracy against God and the Bible, nor was it one against those who believe in God and the Bible; that in fact it came into existence for reasons having nothing to do one way or another with the Bible and God, and that people have been pursuing it ever since for those same reasons; and that he didn't have to have a damned thing to do with it if he didn't want to -- the First Amendment guaranteed that, as it guarantees freedom of belief and worship for everyone in this country. When I finally pinned his ears back with a few searching questions, it turned out what really irked him is that scientists don't care about him or anything related to him, whether his religious beliefs or anything else. I guess he was hoping he'd be martyred by being affixed to a board by shattered test-tubes or something. You know, for the greater glory of God. As I told him, though, it's rather hypocritical of him to make use of the products of science, from medical breakthroughs to space-age materials used in all sorts of useful products for the home and industry, if he really believes that science was created by the Devil. How could he possibly love and worship God and, at the same time, embrace the Devil's work in that way? He went off foaming at the mouth, determined to find someone else he could try to dragoon into believing the way he wanted them to.
What I get for living in a place where everyone is aged 62 and up, and most of us have slim to no resources -- people like that abound here. Which is why I stay in my room and go onto the Internet when I'm not outside the building. At least I can pick and choose what I want to deal with on the Internet, but it's hard to pick and choose which of your neighbors you associate with when they follow you down the hall, screaming at you a lot.
Anyway, the article linked above is fascinating. Enjoy.