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The Science of Life 10 Oct 2007, 0046 hrs IST For hundreds of years philosophers and scientists have been rationalising themselves blue in the face trying to figure out how life could have arisen out of inanimate matter. Even the Darwinian theory of evolution which does such a great job of explaining how natural selection results in the development of new species can't explain by what exact processes life first happened. Yet now, if controversial US scientist Craig Venter's claim can be verified, it's apparently not such a big deal after all. Venter, whose company became famous for running a parallel version of the Human Genome Project in 1999, says he's built a synthetic chromosome using chemicals made in a laboratory. Called 'Mycoplasma laboratorium', the created creature consists at present of a chromosome which is 381 genes long and contains 5,80,000 base pairs of genetic code, using lab-made chemicals. The researchers' plan is to transplant it later into a living bacterial cell and, in the final stage of the process, it's anticipated to take control of the cell and, in effect, become a new life form. Predictably, the groundbreaking work has caused heartburn among people who feel it breaches a societal boundary and that science is beginning to play God. The US government, for instance, which does not provide federal funding for embryonic stem cell research will probably feel the development is ominously more significant than even the cloning of Dolly the sheep a decade ago. At the same time, the fact that this year's Nobel prize in medicine has gone to a group of people doing fundamental work in stem cells involving gene targeting, shows that apex scientific communities are already recognising and accepting such research as routine. And, indeed, they should because genetic therapies and the use of stem cells to create new tissues have moved from the arena of fantasy to laboratories and hospitals. Moreover, gene-targeting in particular has helped expand the knowledge of numerous genes in embryonic development, adult physiology, ageing and disease. The research also offers the best hope yet of unlocking the molecular secrets of illnesses ranging from congenital heart disease to Alzheimer's. Or as inventor Venter puts it, we are going from reading our genetic code to writing it, which gives us the hypothetical ability to do things never contemplated before. So long as reasonable controls are in force, what's wrong? Rayilyn Brown Board Member AZNPF Arizona Chapter National Parkinson's Foundation [log in to unmask] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn