    
Cavebear
cave painter
Username: Cavebear
Post Number: 2456
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, February 25, 2006 - 1:48 am: |     |
I happened upon a website that listed significant scientific events of recent years (by year). I came across one that really surprised me.
From: http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0905090.html
"U.S. scientists at the State University of New York at Stony Brook have created the first synthetic virus. Using directions downloaded from the Internet and chemicals obtained from a mail-order company, they built an apparently identical copy of the poliovirus. When injected into lab mice, the synthetic virus caused paralysis and then death. The scientists, who published their findings in the online journal Science Express in July 2002, said that they undertook the experiment to prove the alarming fact that a functional pathogenic virus could be constructed without access to a natural virus.
Is this small step for biochemistry a great leap for bioterrorism? Scientists say that few people now have the skill to build a synthetic virus, much less one that could be an efficient bioweapon. The genome of the highly contagious smallpox virus is about 25 times as long as that of the poliovirus and has a more complex process of replication. But its synthesis may one day be possible. This being so, the experiment raises questions about the wisdom of ceasing vaccination when a natural virus has been eradicated."
My question is: "Isn't this an example of creating "life"? Shouldn't that have been headline news all over the world?
I think a virus is "life". It can replicate itself. If the synthetic virus isn't "life", why isn't it? Was it proven to be a false claim?
Machiavelli was pretty devious. For a guy... |
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