Post by kmarie on Apr 29, 2010 22:02:34 GMT -5
I came upon this "Scientific Video Lectures" for those of you who are interested.
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fora.tv/2009/11/08/Can_We_Create_Life
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Here are comments from this Scientific Video:
Great lecture. Inspiring. What really bothers me is attributing self-assembly and self-organisation of the cells as mere virtue. Like as if it is built into them. I wonder if my disbelief is due my being a complex organism, who doesn't see this kind of assembly in my everyday life. It is very temping to attribute a eternal "force", if I may use a star wars lingo, to this drive for simple molecules to arrange themselves.
I think sufficient consideration should also be given to the notion that there may be indeed be an ever present order, or "spirit" (not in any theological sense) that drives these cells to self-assemble. We must dive deeper than the cellular level to atomic and even quantum level to find what really is causing this drive to assemble.
Sometimes things that we just take for granted, like gravity, can be really "magical" when we think of it at deeper levels. Have you really ever asked yourself how and why two objects are attracted to each other? Answering it with use of abstruse concepts such as gravitons will only take the question to the next round, what then is the graviton. We as humans have so much to learn.
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I agree insofar as you describe a cell as complex, but the "vitalism" that you are invoking as a necessary prerequisite for life is an archaic notion when the chemistry of life was not as well understood as today.
While I am not trying to convey a sense of complete understanding of these interactions, I am suggesting that there is a threshold of knowledge that can be crossed, potentially imminently, that can account for an order in the synthesis of life. Using rhetorical devices of examples of present ignorance does not support your original thesis of a "force" guiding these processes any more than ignorance disproves the concept. However, it is meaningless speculation. I am not meaning to insult your idea, but to state that it is unsupported by current evidence and particularly by the evidence you cited.
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Viruses have already been made. Just create the DNA and have a cell do the making. As for cells, I would think this is already being done to greater degrees right now.
I would bet your speaker is way out of date.
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Here is a different VIDEO involving genetics and how we are living
in "revolutionary times".
Dr. Nadav Ahituv: Future Genomics
California Academy of Sciences
fora.tv/2009/10/03/Dr_Nadav_Ahituv_Future_Genomics
He speaks of proteins, viruses, and DNA technology.
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Outline for this 2nd video:
01. Introduction
02. Rapid Progress in Genomics
03. Background on the Human Genome
04. How Genomic Sequencing Works
05. Advances in Sequencing Technology
06. The Challenges of Studying Non-Coding DNA Sequences
07. Finding the Function of DNA Sequences
08. Studying Enhancer Sequences
09. Studying Limb Enhancers and Limb Malformations
10. Histone Code and Gene Regulation
11. Predicting Disease Risks with Genomic Sequencing
12. Predicting Drug Effects with Genomic Sequencing
13. The Risks of Personal Genomic Sequencing
14. Q
15. Q1: Altering Treatments Based on Genetics
16. Q2: The Possibility of Limb Regeneration
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