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Craig Venter doting on colonies of Life 1.0, the first self-replicating synthetic cell.

Live webcast is happening now

Opening: “This is the first self-replicating species on the planet who’s parent is a computer.”

“This has been a 15-year quest. Ham and I took two years off to sequence the human genome.”

They also created an ASCII-code in ATGC so that arbitrary text can be included in the genome as a watermark. Some of the Science article reviewers used that code to submit their reviews, prompting the magazine to observe that it was the strangest review ever received.

One of the quotes embedded in this organism:

“What I cannot build I cannot understand – Richard Feynman”

(full disclosure: I am on the board of Synthetic Genomics, which funded this work, and a new vaccine company based on it)

15 responses to “Proud Papa gazes on his creation”

  1. Shamagu Avatar
    Shamagu

    This is so very intriguing. Thanks Steve.

    Reply
  2. photon~wave Avatar
    photon~wave

    Nature NEWS:
    Researchers start up cell with synthetic genome
    Sizing up the ‘synthetic cell’

    Reply
  3. photon~wave Avatar
    photon~wave

    Science News of the Week:
    Synthetic Genome Brings New Life to Bacterium

    Life re-created: Blue colonies (top) indicate a successfully transplanted genome, with self-replicating bacteria revealed in an electron micrograph.

    Reply
  4. PhOtOnQuAnTiQuE Avatar
    PhOtOnQuAnTiQuE

    That was Historic and a cool live =)
    How is it to be part of History in the making ; )

    About the watermark
    "it also is the first species to have its own website in-coded in its genetic code" =)

    "The ability to design and create new forms of life marks a turning-point in the history of our species and our planet."
    —Freeman Dyson

    "From the point of view of technology, a code generated within a digital computer is now self-replicating as the genome of a line of living cells. From the point of view of biology, a code generated by a living organism has been translated into a digital representation for replication, editing, and transmission to other cells."
    —George Dyson

    If some of you want to, here is the Audio of the Conference

    I was happy to see twitts uploading at the same time from John Brockman, Chris Anderson and from all around the world :

    PhotonQ-Creating the First Self Replicating Synthetic Bacterial Cell

    =) Great day to be living on Earth !!!
    And congrats to the team and investors ; )

    So Steve… What’ s next ? =)

    Reply
  5. Jonathan Ruff Avatar
    Jonathan Ruff

    Incredible science. Very exciting stuff. Congrats to Venter and his team. It’s funny, you read about the history of the modern world growing up, and you see prime movers stand out that move the world and push civilization forward (Einstein, Newton, Jefferson / etc, Aristotle, Bacon, Locke, Feynman, Galileo, and on and on); it’s special to get to watch such a person in action here and now.

    I get disgusted watching the mystics of the religious right and the mystics of the enviro left arguing that it’s going to destroy the planet, the environment, or otherwise it’s anti-god, etc.

    Reply
  6. Astrocatou Avatar
    Astrocatou

    Feynman was California’s #1 brain source back in the day…so that’s appropriate.

    Reply
  7. Dr DAD (Daniel A D'Auria MD) Avatar
    Dr DAD (Daniel A D’Auria MD)

    Exciting research in a day when so much science is still repressed by a fearful religious population. I am ecstatic to live in a era of such a brave new world!

    Reply
  8. rwoodworkr Avatar
    rwoodworkr

    Fascinating!

    Reply
  9. Dr DAD (Daniel A D'Auria MD) Avatar
    Dr DAD (Daniel A D’Auria MD)

    By the way, good luck on the commencement speech. They are probably a tougher crowd!

    Reply
  10. photon~wave Avatar
    photon~wave

    Today, Philip Ball puts the announcement of the ‘chemical synthesis of a living organism’ in a particularly profound prespective. From his column in Nature: A synthetic creation story, I want to quote the final paragraph:

    "Attempts to make a genuinely ‘designed’ genome, rather than one based on a naturally evolved bacterium, will remind us how sketchy our understanding is of the rules that govern the crucial interactions among genes and with other elements of living cells. In the post-genomics era, our ideas of where the real business of life resides are shifting again. We are moving away from a linear ‘code’ and towards something altogether more abstract, emergent and entangled."

    Reply
  11. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    thanks y’all.

    photon-wave: yes, and it also begs a more profound question, in my opinion: not how we might redesign these complex systems, but how we might re-evolve them…. which may necessitate co-evolving with them.

    Eppie: please do share the unpacking of that conceptual compression!

    P.S. I have been anticipating this breakthrough in talks I have given of late. Here is a recent video clip of one.

    Reply
  12. Astrocatou Avatar
    Astrocatou

    Hmmm…
    Was just rereading some H Hesse the other night…and came across some new (autobiographical) stuff he wrote.
    ("A Guest at the Spa"….in particular)

    As an overly brooding kid I was "into" Hesse….all that "Wisdom"…I was looking for something…and thought maybe he "had it"…
    (Siddhartha,Steppenwolfe…)

    Apparently,in later life,….(after driving me to 15 years of psychoanalysis)… life he mellowed out and had,in fact,a few good laughs at some of his earlier notions and neurosis…(!!)

    Hopefully we all get that level of wisdom someday…

    J:
    Thank you for such an interesting Flickr experience…and for my daily rant.!

    Reply
  13. photon~wave Avatar
    photon~wave

    I have found this article for dummies (as I am one of them) on Where next for synthetic life?, jointed with the editorial opinion written by C. Venter: The implications of our synthetic cell. I think the last part: How the synthetic Bacterium was made, is particularly instructive.

    Reply
  14. jgury Avatar
    jgury

    http://www.google.com/buzz/110352049954858592591/36eaUZQ5TfR/Has...

    Reply
  15. jgury Avatar
    jgury

    Best of Linkola is relevant here, let me see if I can find some more.

    "The most central and irrational faith among people is the faith in technology and economical growth. Its priests believe until their death that material prosperity bring enjoyment and happiness – even though all the proofs in history have shown that only lack and attempt cause a life worth living, that the material prosperity doesn’t bring anything else than despair. These priests believe in technology still when they choke in their gas masks."
    Not even to bring the plain old problem of evil into the picture. Like the strange hitchhiker picked up by the van of the well intentioned scientific expedition. Or the odd castaway picked up by the yacht of the boozy MD junket near the Island of Dr. Moreau.

    Reply

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