Scientists Expect Artificial Life In 3 To 10 Years

Here is a interesting news on CNN about the possibility of creating the Life artificially. Scientists around the world are trying hard to create life form artificially and they are getting closer. According to the news we can expect an announcement from scientists within 3 to 10 years, in the now little-known field of “wet artificial life”.

If this really happens, that would be a greatest achievement in the history mankind.

“It’s going to be a big deal and everybody’s going to know about it,” said Mark Bedau, chief operating officer of ProtoLife of Venice, Italy, one of those in the race. “We’re talking about a technology that could change our world in pretty fundamental ways — in fact, in ways that are impossible to predict.”

That first cell of synthetic life — made from the basic chemicals in DNA — may not seem like much to non-scientists. For one thing, you’ll have to look in a microscope to see it.

“Creating protocells has the potential to shed new life on our place in the universe,” Bedau said. “This will remove one of the few fundamental mysteries about creation in the universe and our role.”

And several scientists believe man-made life forms will one day offer the potential for solving a variety of problems, from fighting diseases to locking up greenhouse gases to eating toxic waste.

Bedau figures there are three major hurdles to creating synthetic life:

A container, or membrane, for the cell to keep bad molecules out, allow good ones, and the ability to multiply.

A genetic system that controls the functions of the cell, enabling it to reproduce and mutate in response to environmental changes.

A metabolism that extracts raw materials from the environment as food and then changes it into energy.

“When these things are created, they’re going to be so weak, it’ll be a huge achievement if you can keep them alive for an hour in the lab,” he said. “But them getting out and taking over, never in our imagination could this happen.”

Anyway, it is too early to comment on the expected results and the future of the artificial life as the research itself is in primitive stages, but the some scientists are very confident that it will become reality soon. But will it take million years to improve like The Evolution did, remains a question for now, for which we may not know the answer in our life time!

Lets hope the life created artificially would be only of constructive use and doesn’t try take over its creator – human.