Artificial life likely in 3 to 10 years
Scientists have found a possible way to create artificial life from scratch
It is in a field that is little-known known as "Wet Artificial Life"
One of the company is called ProtoLife which is located in Venice, Italy
All such companies are racing to be the first to breakthrough
Mark Bedou, CEO of ProtoLife says that this technology is going to change the world in pretty fundamentals ways
It will shed new light on our place in the universe, and also the mysteries of the creation of the universe and our role
It is also believed by several scientists to provide a solution to a variety of problems such as fighting diseases to locking up green house gases to eating toxic waste
For more information on how it is created, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070820/ap_on_sc/artificial_life;_ylt=AtgErwHvsgs2HVGD00yvowus0NUE
Basically its using nucleotides in a special membrane to form a synthetic lifeform
Jack Szostak at Harvard Medical School explains that making the membrane is the difficult part. Once the container is made, if scientists add nucleotides in the right proportions, then Darwinian evolution could simply take over
Reflections
It is definitely a technology of tomorrow and from the article, but there is no mention of any disadvantages of such breakthrough
There is also going to be a controversial debate over such creation of lifeforms since it is regarded as "playing god"
Most probably, it will transform into a debate similar to cloning
However, I felt that such technology may take years to discover
Even the most optimistic estimates of the technology place it at 3 to 10 years
And even Bedau says that "When these things are created, they're going to be so weak, it'll be a huge achievement if you can keep them alive for an hour in the lab"
Therefore, there is still much time for the public to understand the technology better first
Personally, I believe that such lifeforms will be beneficial if we can control it, and providing us with the solutions to those it is said to be able to give