Jun 19 2008
World’s 1st Synthesized Cells
Magic in a test tube, this is definitely something to keep an eye on.
Article: Harvard Team Creates the World’s 1st Synthesized Cells
A single cell is the most awesomely sophisticated molecular machine yet produced. A self-directing, self-replicating micro-factory capable of complex constructions, automated repair and even (like all good sci-fi-sounding devices) self-destruct. The first cells, however, were much less “complex mechanisms” and significantly more “Shake and Bake” - a model that we’re now ready to build ourselves.
These proto-cells didn’t have any sophisticated cellular functions, consisting of nothing more than a fatty cell wall just dense enough to have an inside and an outside, with a speck of DNA on the “not-outside” side. This child’s model of a cell drifted in the chemical soup that created it until the correct nucleotides were absorbed and allowed it to replicated the DNA. Continue Reading »
