Breakfast on Pluto

How to Make Artificial Life in 7 Steps

Martyn — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 07:06:25 +0000

Following on from my recent article about synthetic life I thought I would look at how the issue was reported in the UK press and who had published the best laymans guide to the process. I was not particularly impressed by a doomsday scenario grabbing article published in the Daily Mail suggesting that artificial life created by Craig Benter could wipe out humanity, however there was a graphic attributed to John Lawson that was published within the article which broke the entire process down into 7 more easily understood stages. I have a created a small thumbnail of the graphic for use within this post but I would like to respect the rights of the creator so you can see both the original article and the more impressive graphic here.

White Office Furniture In Vogue

Martyn — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 00:54:12 +0000

White desking seems to be flavour of the month when it comes to fitting out larger new prestige offices particularly in London where white desking is proving to be almost as popular as the ubiquitous but some would say boring beech finish. Exactly why it should be that white desking is proving so popular at the moment is hard to say so we can only speculate. Black ash office furniture is also proving very popular and it could be argued that both black and white office furniture have come back into fashion after a gap of around 20 years, so these finishes could be considered to be a very retro look.

Despite this popularity, few office furniture dealers are geared up to offer much in the way of choice when asked for a range of white desks and other white office furniture. If you are looking for a 1 stop shop then you could look at a specialist white office furniture store.

US Scientist Claims Synthetic Life Created

Martyn — Fri, 21 May 2010 12:33:23 +0000

US scientist Dr Craig Venter of the J Craig Venter Institute in Maryland and California claimed yesterday to have succeeded in developing the first sythetic living cell which is controlled entirely by synthetic DNA by constructing the “genetic software” of a bacterium and transplanting it into a host cell. The resulting microbes look and behaviour was then “dictated” by the synthetic DNA.

The advance which was published in Science, has been proclaimed as a scientific landmark comparable to the splitting of the atom or the development of silicon chips, but critics are lining up to denounce the potential dangers posed by the creation of brand new synthetic organisms such as the creation of new and dangerous diseases and some feel that the potential benefits of this technology are a vastly over-hyped.
The more optimistic scientists hope that this new techology could lead to bacterial cells being designed to produce medicines, fuels and may possibly help the world to resolve climate change issues by absorbing greenhouse gases.

The breakthrough occured by creating a synthetic bacterial genome and transplanting this genome into a normal living bacterium, to create the “synthetic cell”. In truth only the genome is truly synthetic having been created in a synthesis machine.