Recent scientific advances in the understanding of life are making it possible for scientist to create life from non-life, the first patent for a synthetic cell has been applied for.  Questions comments?

Do you have a link to any synthetic cell research?  Are they assembling pre existing biological protiens or mixing chemical elements from scratch somehow?

Retrospy’s question is a very pertinent one. People have been combining biological parts to create new forms of life for awhile now. (That’s what genetic engineering is, after all). Perhaps you could elaborate?

Right, creating life from non-life is the bold statement for inquiry.

I’m going to assume that these scientists are conducting their experiments in a peanut butter jar.

There are two different approaches to synthetic cell production top down and bottom up.  Bottom up focuses on theories of how life began on earth originally.  Basically an amphilic molecule, that is a molecule which has polar and non-polar potions will form a membrane.  Then some RNA and some other basic cellular machinery is added to create a brand new cell from scratch.  The other top down method craig venter is trying is more like a glorified gmo he basically is taking a living organism and rewritting its dna in such a way that it is very simple, having only 300 genes, humans have 30,000 to put it in perspective.

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