Path: utzoo!censor!geac!jtsv16!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!csd4.csd.uwm.edu!stevelee
From: stevelee@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Just Another Steve (but not dave))
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Creating life
Keywords: Life
Message-ID: <765@uwm.edu>
Date: 4 Nov 89 18:06:10 GMT
References: <2461@umbc3.UMBC.EDU> <8523@medusa.cs.purdue.edu> <762@uwm.edu> <8525@medusa.cs.purdue.edu>
Reply-To: stevelee@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Just Another Steve (but not dave))
Distribution: usa
Organization: Catatoni Ignoramus University-Mad Scientist Division
Lines: 37

In article <8525@medusa.cs.purdue.edu> muttiah@cs.purdue.edu (Ranjan Samuel Muttiah) writes:

>Wouldn't it be more a challenge to _document_ all the existing life forms ?
>Let's face it. We only know of 40-50 % of the species that exist let alone
>document them in detail.  What happens to the rest. Do we care ?  Are
>_we_ the environment now ?

	Yes and no.  It would be a grand challenge-but about as realistic as
	the search for the perpetual motion machine.  

	The problem is not so much the concept of the project-but instead it's
	the enormity of it.  I find it difficult to believe that we really 
	know even 25% of all species of MAMMALS, let alone birds, reptiles,
	insects, fish, ad infinitum.  

	The beauty of "creating life" is that the techniques needed are 
	coming from scientists not necessarily looking to do it.  For
	example, a molecular biologist studying how and why oncogenes get
	turned on in cancer cells, is also adding to the pool of knowledge 
	that will some day be used and incorporated into the first forms of
	"protolife" if you will.  

	Besides, as my .sig states "History shows again and again how 
	Nature points out the folly of men."  Every time we would think
	we've got everything catalogued and filed away, we'd find something
	new, and realize how few species we really do know about.  (Heck,
	in the bacterial world, new species are arising constantly.  But I
	assume we aren't realy discussing the world of microbes.)

				-stevelee-
	

|-------------------------------|--------------------------------------------|
| Steven Lee Pearson         	| HISTORY SHOWS AGAIN AND AGAIN HOW NATURE   |
| stevelee@csd4.csd.uwm.edu	| POINT OUT THE FOLLY OF MEN.		     |
| (414) 962-4828	     	| (from "Godzilla" by the BOC)		     |
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