Can mankind now create life?

Question: Can mankind now create life!?

Not cloning or saving a life but something maybe on a microbe scale or something else!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

No, mankind cannot truly create life of any kind without first starting with life!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Yes, we can sexually reproduce to create life!.

We cannot engineer life if that is what you are asking because that is impossible according to the law of Biogenesis!. Life cannot simply come from nowhere!. Life must come from life!.

But scientists are able to engineer microbes close to living things, but they are not life!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Yes, and it could be argued we already have!. Ignoring the trivial case of making children (which I'm sure you didn't mean to include), man has made many new species which simply would not exist in nature had we not created them!. Dogs, corn, Brussels sprouts, and nectarines are a few examples!. We domesticated dogs from wolves, removing them so far from their natural counterparts as to constitute a separate species!. Corn is essentially a wildly mutated (thanks to our efforts) grass plant like wheat, and nectarines are a hybrid between peaches & plums!.

But maybe you're thinking of a new form of life made completely from scratch!? DNA is very much like a computer program, and genes for coding particular proteins (which in turn do various things) are like the subroutines of the program!. Through genetic engineering, we can take those genes (subroutines) that do things we want and put them together from separate microorganisms to create a new microbe that has a genome (genetic program) that doesn't exist elsewhere in nature!. For example, we now have bacteria that can "eat" an oil spill or toxic waste!. Other bacteria can churn out vaccines, insecticides, silk, or other useful things!.

I think what's really important in all of this though is that life isn't some magical, supernatural, or unknowable phenomenon!. It is an entirely natural process, and that means we can figure it out!. Biotechnology is moving out of its infancy, and some of the advances on the horizon are pretty incredible!. For more on this, you might want to check out the book below!. It's a really good read for the layman about all the wild possibilities biotech will open up for us in the coming years!.
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If you consider viruses to be life then biologists have been able to create totally synthetic life for some time!.

We are on the verge of creating one cell microbial life and in another ten years will be able to look back and wonder what all the fuss was about!.

Life has not special essence that is derived from God!. Just another belief based on ignorance from a religion that is the worship of ignorance!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Absolutely!.

Of course, it depends on how stictly you wish to define your terms!. Some would say it already happened about in the 1950s when research on microspheres began (link 1)!. These tiny structures performed most of the functions of a living thing, excepting only that they lacked a genetic structure and could not indefinitely reproduce and maintain themselves!.

Leaving those aside, we have also been able to laboriously produce our own strings of DNA for some time and to chemically produce all the amino acids and other biological building blocks for even longer!. Nowadays we have machines that can be told what sequence to produce and which will just chug away and make it on their own!. The polymerase chain reaction was discovered in 1985 that allows mere duplication of DNA sequences!. And recently (link 2) we transplanted the entirety of the DNA from one living thing and replaced that of another (what the press called a 'species transplant')!.

Interestingly enough, Crain Venter, the fellow who set out to beat the Genome Project at their own game, also recently produced the largest completely man-made DNA sequence in an effort to produce oil-making bacteria (link 3)!. I seem to recall that he was also setting out to craft the first completely artificial lifeform too, by producing a complete set of DNA and putting it in an artificially-made cell!. As I mentioned above, it's not an implausible effort at all, given the technology we possess!. If one wanted to go to extra expense, one could even do it in such a way that no part of the resulting lifeform had ever been part of a living thing before!.

The real question is really whether it is currently worth the time, effort, and expense!. Until we understand a lot more about protein-folding and the like to do much more than just copy existing things, I would say the answer is no, myself, except merely to demonstrate that we can!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Anything is possible through modern science!.!.!.I agree that there must be a starting point with some form of initial material, but nothing can be created from, well!.!.!.nothing!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

On a psychic level and microbe scale level we are creators of new lifeWww@QuestionHome@Com

if one life created us all we dont have that capability! do we why are we so stange as to want to play god anyway,!.,!., creep thinkersWww@QuestionHome@Com

Always could!.

How else do you think you got here!?Www@QuestionHome@Com

!.!.!.im alive!.!.!.YES!.!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Yeah it's called a fetus!Www@QuestionHome@Com

noWww@QuestionHome@Com

Your parents did, didn't they!?Www@QuestionHome@Com