And so it begins....Artificial life??

[Rali]

Here's a related story:
Evolution in a Bottle: Synthetic Life Oozes Closer to Reality
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=evolution-in-a-bottle

[drewkitty ~..~]

molecules are not life


What the articles are saying, is that We've made molecules.

There is no way to get around the 1st law of biogenesis. Which simply states, "Life comes from life".
Which means there is some other then molecules that is life. Even it it is those same molecules that life attaches itself to.
People forget that we were engenered the way we are.
Or maybe they just want to forget, that way they can keep living the way they want to.

[Mechanurgist]

Replicating the biochemical reactions that may have lead to complex lifeforms is one of the first steps towards creating life, but it's still a long way off. We're not even 1% of the way there.

I suspect that in the future we will find it infinitely easier to adjust existing lifeforms rather than try to build new ones from scratch.

[drewkitty ~..~]

Replicating the biochemical reactions that may have lead to complex life forms is one of the first steps towards creating life, but it's still a long way off. We're not even 1% of the way there.

I suspect that in the future we will find it infinitely easier to adjust existing lifeforms rather than try to build new ones from scratch.

You can't "Create Life". (1st law of biogenesis)
You can only manipulate the physical side, DNA and other physical data carriers, of what is already here.

[Mechanurgist]

Oh dear. I'm not going to get sucked into a creationist/evolutionist argument here, omne vivum e vivo notwithstanding.

[drewkitty ~..~]

Its not a theological debate between Creationism and Evolutionism. (yes, evolutionism is a theology)

It Is about the scientific Fact that there is no such thing as artificial life, because life has to come from life as per a Scientific Law. And proper word usage.

[Rali]

Molecule of life emerges from laboratory slime (New Scientist)
http://is.gd/zQ8B

CREATING life in the primordial soup may have been easier than we thought. Two essential elements of RNA have finally been made from scratch, under conditions similar to those that likely prevailed during the dawn of life.

[Rali]

well you never know. maybe one day we will create artificial wombs and grow people and animals inside of them

True, but why? We already to a pretty good job of it as is on our own. In a game like AtB that's pretty cool, but when you think of it in real life terms, it's not so great. Most people would think it a miracle for those who are infertile or unable to have children for other reasons, but that's just life's way of keeping a population in check.

I'd see artificial wombs being used to help species on the decline, but we still need to keep account of food supplies, habitat, and limited natural resources. Of course, you could also use it to produce animals outside of the farm for the food industry. Gives a new spin on Spam in a can.