Artificial life created?

imagecredit:postsecret

Scientist says he's created a synthetic chromosome that could combat global warming

Mr Venter told the Guardian he thought this landmark would be "a very important philosophical step in the history of our species. We are going from reading our genetic code to the ability to write it. That gives us the hypothetical ability to do things never contemplated before".

The Guardian can reveal that a team of 20 top scientists assembled by Mr Venter, led by the Nobel laureate Hamilton Smith, has already constructed a synthetic chromosome, a feat of virtuoso bio-engineering never previously achieved. Using lab-made chemicals, they have painstakingly stitched together a chromosome that is 381 genes long and contains 580,000 base pairs of genetic code.

The DNA sequence is based on the bacterium Mycoplasma genitalium which the team pared down to the bare essentials needed to support life, removing a fifth of its genetic make-up. The wholly synthetically reconstructed chromosome, which the team have christened Mycoplasma laboratorium, has been watermarked with inks for easy recognition.

credit:guardian.UK

Uh, where does climate change come into play here?

Mr Venter believes designer genomes have enormous positive potential if properly regulated. In the long-term, he hopes they could lead to alternative energy sources previously unthinkable. Bacteria could be created, he speculates, that could help mop up excessive carbon dioxide, thus contributing to the solution to global warming, or produce fuels such as butane or propane made entirely from sugar.

Virgin dragon to give birth

photo credit: Phil Noble / Reuters

oooh, this ones a doozy from the AP. Headline :Virgin dragon to give birth in holiday season

Flora, a pregnant Komodo dragon living in a British zoo, is expecting eight babies. All of the eggs she is hatching were fertilised without the help of a male partner because Flora has never mated, or even mixed, with a male dragon.

Is that even possible?

“We were blown away when we realized what she’d done,” said Kevin Buley, a reptile expert at Flora’s home at the Chester Zoo in this town in northern England. “But we certainly won’t be naming any of the hatchlings Jesus.”
Other reptile species reproduce asexually in a process known as parthenogenesis. But Flora’s virginal conception, and that of another Komodo dragon earlier this year at the London Zoo, are the first time it has been documented in a Komodo dragon.

Two-faced kitten

sent from the twisted awareness of the Friendly Stranger

Yikes. This line bothers me the most:

It has two mouths that meow in unison, two noses and four eyes that have not opened yet...

Um, acutally not that one but:

Dr. Shane Bateman with The Ohio State University Veterinary Hospital said a two-faced kitten is extremely rare and there's no real explanation as to why it would have happened.

Dude, it's the roll of the genetic dice, slightly loaded thanks to all the fucked-up shit we put into the world.