Month: September 2022

THE GREEN HOPE. "It is possible that chemical plant growth regulators or chemical plant growth retardants, which are frequently used in horticulture, can be replaced by an appropriate mechanical stress, that is an environment-friendly treatment." https://lnkd.in/dDuN9mZ View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS yet another example of old wisdom from other cultures being not transmitted, and thus being lost; however, curious scientists have dug up obscure publications and completed rigorous validation and mechanistic investigations into these plant phenomena. However, the translation from bench to field, is probably still a very long way away. View in LinkedIn

BIOETHICAL CONCERNS. "After the publication of the first synthetic genome by Craig Venter's group and the accompanying media coverage about "life" being created, President Obama requested the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues to study synthetic biology." https://lnkd.in/dQ84mU3 View in LinkedIn

THE REPORT. "The commission convened a series of meetings, then issued a report in December 2010 titled "New Directions: The Ethics of Synthetic Biology and Emerging Technologies." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_biology View in LinkedIn

LIFE WAS NOT CREATED (FROM SCRATCH). "The report clarified that the Venter group had not created life, and noted that synthetic biology is an emerging field, which creates potential risks and rewards." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_biology View in LinkedIn

NO CHANGES. "The commission did not recommend any changes to policy or oversight and called for continued funding of the research and new funding for monitoring, study of emerging ethical issues, and public education." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_biology View in LinkedIn

SYNTHETIC DNA ROBOTS ARE ALIVE, as alive as viruses. It is Victorian to exclude viruses from the definition of life. We have crossed the border and have created living machines. DNA is arguably the unit of life and contains all the intelligent coding needed for life. In nature, DNA evolves, creating diversity of fitness for the environment, and the Bell Curve of evolution selects the fittest to become dominant. In the case of DNA robots, Man would be the rational force of evolution. View in LinkedIn

LIFE AS I.T. "We defined the terms “synthetic life” and “synthetic cells” in a reasonably specific way, as cells completely controlled only by a synthetic DNA chromosome. The synthetic genome was the software of life, which specified every protein robot in the cell, and therefore every one of the cell’s functions. From the public response to our announcement and scientific publication, however, it was clear that some found it hard to accept the concept of life as an information system." https://lnkd.in/eyZU783 View in LinkedIn

REAR VIEW MIRROR. "The field of molecular evolution is concerned with evolutionary changes in genes and genomes and the underlying driving forces behind those changes. Current studies in molecular evolution are almost entirely retrospective, with a focus on the mutations that were fixed during evolution, and the conclusions are often explanatory, offering no predictive insights." https://lnkd.in/dq6c-q7 View in LinkedIn

FRACTIONAL MUTATIONS. "Because only a tiny fraction of all mutations that have ever occurred during evolution have been fixed, the “successes” that we see today provide an incomplete or even biased understanding of the evolutionary process." The evolutionary rubbish bin is essentially hidden and likely very full. http://science.sciencemag.org/content/352/6287/769 View in LinkedIn