tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2183196195543605956.post5816178284836533227..comments2023-09-15T07:30:58.407-07:00Comments on Opisthokont: Craig Venter's Synthetic BacteriumOpisthokonthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09962363962978125098noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2183196195543605956.post-54203194686120721272010-05-26T07:48:08.536-07:002010-05-26T07:48:08.536-07:00DG -- Thanks for the correction. I suppose I shou...DG -- Thanks for the correction. I suppose I should be more careful with my words: "designed" carries connotations of the sort of bottom-up work that Venter's team did not do. Perhaps the word "planned" or "specified" would be better. Like I said later on in my post, this is one of the major reasons why this work is really not the big deal it can easily be spun as: the new genome is really just a reshuffling of bits of already-extant ones. However, I think the point is still relevant that the new genome existed as computer data before ever being chemically synthesised, and that is a pretty impressive accomplishment.<br /><br />Lucas -- Thanks for the comment. I don't mean to be setting up strawmen, though; I see in retrospect that I should have been clearer that 'life from scratch' was not Venter's goal for this project. The things that Venter is best known for (this, the Sargasso Sea metagenome, the human genome) are actually very conservative projects, things with foreseeable outcomes using extant technology. Bottom-up synthesis of life fits none of his criteria, and I suspect that even when we get it to work it will be a very long time before we are able to get it to do anything practical. You are perfectly right: if you want to get a specific task done, the top-down approach is almost always the best one. And while my personal penchant for the interesting but impractical may hide this, I do agree that the world needs its Henry Fords every much as it does its Wright Brothers. Or should that be Wright Brotherses? Hmm.Opisthokonthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09962363962978125098noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2183196195543605956.post-57108594944685536232010-05-25T07:04:40.452-07:002010-05-25T07:04:40.452-07:00Great post but I offer one correction from a bit o...Great post but I offer one correction from a bit of info at the beginning. Describing the genome as having been designed on the computer isn't actually true. This is the same genome the team has used in previous work, including the big one two seats ago, and was initially constructed using classical techniques. This time they did start with a digital representation but that digital copy was the result of sequencing the genome they had peiced together earlier-DGhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16018033631187602248noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2183196195543605956.post-36173535251577673412010-05-25T06:02:30.122-07:002010-05-25T06:02:30.122-07:00You're absolutely right in noting that this is...You're absolutely right in noting that this isn't 'life from scratch', but your hypothetical 'true' synthetic lifeform is a bit of a strawman considering the goals of the Venter team. <br /><br />Suppose the programmers of Adobe want to build the next version of Photoshop. What they -could- do is start by assembling a computer, down and dirty messing with electronic circuits and such. After the machinery is there, they need to build a compiler, write an assembly language and program a text editor so that they can begin to write their program. From scratch.<br /><br />What I'm trying to say is that bottom-up strategies are very effective if you want to fully understand how something works. If you want to get something done however, it might make more sense to start from the top, trying to make some small hacks to see if you can understand how the system you want to manipulate works. If the Adobe programmers come up with a new and improved version of Photoshop, nobody will doubt that they came up with a new and improved (synthetic, if you will) design of a successful program.<br /><br />If the Venter-team wants to build a plastic-digesting bacterium now, top down seems to be the way to go. They <b>want</b> to be the next Henry Ford, with synthetic bacteria rolling out of their factories en masse.Lucas Brouwershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15192035237302508309noreply@blogger.com