First Synthetic Organism Created – Artificial Intelligence!!

•      Posted by Jeremy Hackett, January 29, 2011. Ref. Discover magazine, Jan. 2011
•         In May 2010 an artificial living cell was created by synthesizing the entire genome of a bacterium and transplanting it into another.
•        First self-replicating species…on the planet whose parent is a computer
•        Construction of genome of Mycoplasma mycoides and tagging it with gene that turns the bacterium blue
•        Implanting it into another bacterium that had been stripped of it’s DNA The good side is that it brings us closer in a much more designed manner for eg. creating microbes that can produce drugs or churn out biofuel.
•        Environmental “watchdogs’ have voiced concern – may escape and become invasive!
•        President Obama has asked the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues to explore the implications of the work