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FRAGMENT FROM NATURE continues the contemplation of plant responses to physical stimulus, and the genes and biochemical pathways involved. Science in the West has been a latecomer to this story, which has been known in ancient Japan for a very long time. But science did catch up, and the ancient myth is validated. View in LinkedIn

REGULATOR MUTANT SEARCH. "Here we concentrated on stem thigmomorphogenesis to identify new regulators of the touch response. We screened for plants that did not exhibit shortened stems after repeated touch." https://lnkd.in/dv9swtZ View in LinkedIn

NEW TREE OF LIFE. "Build a fully functioning mirror cell made of molecules they themselves would synthesise. To put it another way: don't just create new branches on the tree of life, as Venter was doing with his tweaks of existing cells. Instead, create an entirely new tree." https://lnkd.in/d_9HSZe View in LinkedIn

STEREOTYPICAL RESPONSE. "Arabidopsis exhibits several stereotypical thigmomorphogenic responses that require multiple days of touch, including the inhibition of stem elongation, shortened petioles, reduced rosette diameter and delayed transition to flowering." https://lnkd.in/dv9swtZ View in LinkedIn

INTERNATIONAL SYNTHETIC YEAST RACE. "The scientists are joining an international effort to build the world's first synthetic yeast genome from scratch, using groundbreaking techniques that are set to transform the field of biology. Experts from Britain, the US, China and India aim to make synthetic versions of all of the organism's 16 chromosomes by 2017, and incorporate them into living cells a year later." https://lnkd.in/dYfARSK View in LinkedIn

REPETITION SENSOR QUEST. "However, these effects are potentially far downstream in the pathway. No real known regulator of thigmomorphogenesis capable of sensing repetition has been identified yet." https://lnkd.in/dv9swtZ 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

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

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

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