Synthetic life possible within decade, scientists say

By Dick Pelletier

     Say goodbye to global warming, toxic waste, and dependency on fossil fuels; and enjoy perfect health in a body that can never age or get sick. These are just some of the dreams researchers see as they attempt to copy how nature gathers non-living matter and transforms it into life.

     Life is generally not thought of as being mechanical, but a cell basically is a miniature machine which rearranges non-living atoms to create parts that “bring it to life.”

     Genetic pioneer Craig Venter predicts that within three to 10 years the little-known field of "wet artificial life" could produce the world’s first human-made life forms. The first synthetic life cell will be made from basic DNA-type chemicals and it could be used to take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, replacing it with methane. "It will soon be possible to break our dependency on oil and strike a blow at global warming," Venter says.

     "Creating artificial life has the potential to shed new light on our place in the universe," says Mark Bedau, COO of ProtoLife in Venice, Italy. "This will remove the fundamental mystery about creation and our role in the world."

     Although most people see this technology as providing mankind with virtually unlimited commercial and medical benefits, others worry about ethical and moral issues of human-made life. “The first artificial life form is likely to shock people’s religious and cultural beliefs,” said Bedau.

     "It’s certainly true we are tinkering with something very powerful here," adds Steen Rasmussen of the NASA-supported Protocell project. "But there’s no difference in what we’re doing here and what humans did when they invented fire, designed the transistor and split the atom," he said.

     The three major steps necessary for scientists to create synthetic life include the following:

1. Fashion a cell-housing that keeps bad molecules out, good ones in, and allows cells to multiply freely.

2. Design specialized DNA that enables cells to mutate in response to environmental changes.

3. Develop a metabolism system that enables cells to convert raw materials into energy.

     Harvard Medical School researcher Jack Szostak predicts that within six months scientists will create an artificial cell-housing and by 2015, develop nucleotides to form a working system. He believes once this happens, Darwinian evolution will take over revealing all of the secrets of today’s diseases. Forward thinkers believe that by 2020, this technology could enable scientists to eliminate cancer, heart disease, and nearly all other sicknesses.

     Could artificial life forms ever run amok and destroy our world? "When these things are created, they'll be so weak, we'll be lucky if they remain alive for an hour in the lab," Bedau said. "Breaking out and taking over the world – never in our wildest imagination could this happen – plus, potential life-saving benefits of this technology are enormous."

     Eventual benefits of artificial life are limited only by imagination: self-reproducing factories, microscopic disease-killing machines and a menagerie of life forms performing useful functions. Positive futurists believe that by 2025 or before, human-made life forms could provide everyone with a body fashioned from "designer genes" that will never age or get sick.

     Welcome to what promises to become an incredible "magical future."

This article appeared in various print publications and on-line blogs. Comments always welcome.