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To: Condor who wrote (92)	11/21/2002 9:43:29 PM
From: Win Smith	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 603

This is an odd story. I'll have to watch for something with a little more depth than the wire service coverage. I'm not entirely sure what distinguishes this from conventional genetic engineering. Then there's this. The goal, said Venter, is to build a bacterium that is capable of making hydrogen that could be used for fuel, or to develop a microbe that could absorb and store carbon dioxide, thus removing a surplus of that greenhouse gas from the atmosphere. Well, the first one would be cool and everything, though there are industrial processes. The second one sort of sounds like photosynthesis. Which has only been around for a few billion years. A more conventional techno-fix approach on that front that's been kicking around a while: Study: Iron dumped in ocean increases greenhouse gas-eating algae cnn.com Ocean fertilization yields hope, uncertainty for global warming cnn.com

To: Condor who wrote (92)	11/26/2002 9:49:34 AM
From: Win Smith	Respond to of 603

Venter Aims to Create Life sciencenow.sciencemag.org [ A concise gloss on this story from Science , with attached graphic. In full: ] Not one to be shy about his goals, DNA sequencer J. Craig Venter Jr. announced today that he has won a government grant to create life. The U.S. Department of Energy, according to Venter, has awarded him $3 million over 3 years to "develop a synthetic chromosome," the first step toward a self-replicating organism with a totally artificial genome. No one has ever attempted this, but several years ago Venter began studying how DNA might be trimmed down to create a "minimal genome"--one with only a few hundred genes. He published a paper on how Mycoplasma genitalium might be stripped down in this way and still survive (Science, 10 December 1999, p. 2165). Venter and his colleagues now want to test the concept at the Institute for Biological Energy Alternatives (IBEA) in Rockville, Maryland, founded by Venter earlier this year (Science, 3 May, p. 824). Venter announced that he has recruited molecular biologist Hamilton Smith, a 1978 Nobel laureate, to head up IBEA's 25-person scientific team. The experiment's purpose, Venter says, is to develop an efficient organism that can be programmed to carry out specific tasks--such as sequestering unwanted carbon in the environment or producing hydrogen for fuel--but would self-destruct if it ever escaped from its specialized environment. The project raises ethical challenges, as Venter acknowledges. Several years ago, he commissioned a review panel headed by ethicist Mildred Cho of Stanford University to review the risks of creating new life forms. The panel found no show-stopping moral issues but recommended strongly that public authorities review the risks of environmental contamination and the potential for the technology to be used in biological weapons. "We ought to be talking about these risks now and developing the means to control the technology" if it becomes viable, says one member of that panel, bioethicist David Magnus of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. And what are the chances that Venter's team might actually invent a new form of life? "Never bet against him," Magnus advises.