Does anyone else find this prospect a little unnerving?

[uvjunkie]

Scientist to create bacteria from scratch writing genetic code

If something goes wrong with this little experiment it could make GM crops look like a wonderful idea.

Comments

[shaunotd]

With a minimal genome the likelihood of it being able to compete with other bacteria in the wild is pretty much zero.

And GM Crops *are* a wonderful idea - it's the commercial application & PR that's been flawed.

[uvjunkie]

That may be so but the words pretty much zero do not equate to actually being zero. However minimal the chances human error, bad science, contamination, whatever other reasons could cause it to go wrong and the results could be potentially catastrophic. Also, the possible applications of such technology are pretty scarey. Especially if this stuff starts being released into the atmosphere.

I'm still not convinced by GM crops. There no conclusive proof that they are healthy for consumption or the environment and I don't think there ever will be. I know there are arguments for and against but you can never be 100% sure. The knock on effects may not be felt for many years, until maybe the natural process of mutation and evolution runs into problems with the genetic code. We like to play god all too often, with little or no regard for the consequences.

[shaunotd]

Sure the danger cannot be assumed to be zero. Everything has a finite chance of going horribly wrong. However IMHO the dangers from artificial bacteria would be *way* less than those already posed by the natural ones we already have. Natural bacteria have far greater genetic diversity than these minimal-genome organisms would have, giving them much greater potential to compete in the wild, and to evolve naturally into dangerous strains. Even if these artificial organisms *did* escape, and *did* manage to compete in the wild, and *did* somehow become pathogenic or otherwise dangerous, (all very big ifs) the creators would know *far* more about them than they would about naturally-occurring pathogens, and better equipped to deal with them. That's why I don't think they pose a significant additional risk

[ultrareality]

It's all okay, so long as they don't change their name to Umbrella Corporation. :)

[psyf]

That's scary! I don't believe that anybody can predict how such bacteria will interact with all the ecosystems they might come into contact with or how they might mutate -- and then interact