Creating our own life forms

[kwicky]

Craig Ventnor has succeeded in building the world's first bacterium to solve the problems of our age including global warming. Do you agree with this method?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7203186.st m

p.s. Craig Ventnor is renowned for working with Fred Sanger the English double Nobel prize winner. Half way through the decoding of the complete human DNA at Cambridge he went to the USA to do identical work, found a method that was far quicker with the intention of patenting the code for financial profit. The outcome was that you cannot patent God's handiwork!

[honest_joe]

Lets face it Ventnor is not doing this research for altruistic reasons. IS FOR PROFITS! Profit may not be a bad reason for doing this but remember we are still debating the merfits of GM crops and this new research will lead down a similar path.

Also take the case of the cancer genes BBRAC discovered by American scientists and patented. Every time we need to check this gene against a woman suffering from breast cancer we have to pay �2000 for the priviledge.

This new coded bacterium will be patented and if used will make his company billions. We might save the planet but at what expense?

[kwicky]

The Royal Society are so concerned about this subject they are inviting views from the public. If this new research has such a disastrous impact on our society and the dangers of releasing a man made bacterium into the atmosphere we should speak out now.

Instead of saving the planet we may be doing exactly the opposite.

http://royalsociety.org/page.asp?changes=0&lat est=1&id=6731

[kwicky]

Yes I quite agree, but why do we have always to play second fiddle. Britain was in the lead when it came to decoding the human DNA but the initiative was passed to the USA. We have the brains to decode and manipulate bacterium DNA but you will find the British paying through the nose for any achievements in this field.

[kwicky]

With over 800 statements on have your say put by the public maybe this should be worth looking into:

http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?fo rumID=4158&edition=1&ttl=20080125204112