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Team:USTC/Human Practice
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Team:USTC/Human Practice
Contents |
How do We Explain E. ADEM to Mr. Darwin?
Dear Mr. Darwin:
You have already known about Synthetic Biology, don't you? [http://dsc.discovery.com/technology/slideshow/synthetic-biologists-darwin.html] I'm gonna talk to you about our novel project in Synthetic Biology field. Since it is based on and closely related to the Evolutionism, I think you'll be interested.
As you have known, the same stuff called DNA stores all the secrets of life and dominate the features of creature individual. Synthetic Biologists are changing the DNA sequence 'designing and synthetizing' the new forms of life. But we are trying something new. We choose to do 'synthetizing and evolving' in a living creature. It sounds crazy, you may say, as other people may think.
We not only want to give evolution a direction but also try to make the process automatic as the first steam locomotive in the world of synthetic biology. It seems that we are employing one of the most powerful forces in the nature to creat what we want, perhaps a living thing. This prospect may leave many people jittery. I don't know whether you were jittery or not when you discovered the most deeply covered secret of evolution. We now find we can employ or even 'control' evolution. What I am sure is that you certainly had much stronger feelings about the power of the evolution than us after seeing the fossils in person on the voyage of the Beagle.
We have thought about this question seriously. The final purpose of our project is to evolve anything including a system--a system that holds the potential to be a new form of life. Is it true that when we finally reach this destination we will have the chance to play God?
We are not fearing the possible godlike power; we are fearing the inability to control it. We agree with what Pro. Caplan once pointed out:'It is hard to credit the view that God would give us the abilities to make new life forms and then argue that to do so crosses a line that God does not want crossed. If one takes a more secular view the fact that human beings can mimic random processes that allowed life to emerge is not especially threatening to faith in the divinity.'
However, as for the inability to control the power, there are serious potential risks while we are striving for this final purpose. It is the positive safety measures and prudent thinking that is being cried for. We are striving for the ability to control what we would create as urgently as we are striving for the benefits which would come along with the final purpose.
Safety
Nature (11/24/2005) once set a complete part talking about the synthetic biology. This the cover of the Journal that repeatedly rewarding us the controversial nature of our work.
We have long being wondering the puzzle ever since the moment we started that whether the story showed in the comic will become true in the future given what we are doing now. Is it safe for people to operate the experiment? What if the automatic evolution turned to be out of control? Will new virus and bacteria cause huge disaster because of our carelessness? Is it right or not for us to persue our ambition to play the role of God?
Please [http://www.nature.com/nature/comics/syntheticbiologycomic/index.html| click here] to see the commplete comic.
Experimental Safety
E.ADEM Safety
- BioBrick
- AID-related Safety Problem: In our project, we employed the gene of Activation-Induced Deaminase (AID) as the functional part in the Variation Function which is responsible to change the evolution object. The AID works on single DNA and invert the base C to U by deamination. There are some potential danger of the use of AID since it works on a relatively large scope and the spread of its gene may cause some unpredictable results.
- Quorum-Sensing Safety Problem: Quorum-sensing device used to calculate population size and average score may lead to the formation of biofilm[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biofilm]. The plaque that forms on the teeth of a person with poor dental hygiene is a type of biofilm. Other types of biofilms serve as nourishment for larger organisms or as a component of sewage treatment systems that clean wastewater. In essence, any surface that combines an abundance of moisture and nutrients is susceptible to biofilm formation if microorganisms are present. This means that biofilms can affect virtually any industry that involves a water-based process: nautical shipping, paper manufacturing, cooling systems, drinking water facilities, health care, medical devices, and food processing. Actually, quorum sensing plays a key role in the formation of biofilms. Many methods aimed to eliminate the biofilm focus on interfering with quorum sensing. That way, the spread of the quorum-sensing device would cause some troubles related to food safety or other industries.
- System
- Restore the system
1.supervise the mutation.
2.Suicide Switch.
Security
BioBrick Security
Project Security
Code
