First round of ill-informed objections to the first synthetic bacterium

HuckleB

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Sat May-22-10 04:20 PM
Original message

First round of ill-informed objections to the first synthetic bacterium

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/05/first_round_of_ill-informed_ob.php

"I've been following the reaction to the synthesis of a new life form by the Venter lab with some interest and amusement. There have been a couple of common directions taken, and they're generally all wrong. This is not to say that there couldn't be valid concerns, but that the loudest complaining voices right now are the most ignorant."

The article addresses the reaction from the following categories:

Hysteria and Fear-Mongering
Playing God
Total Confusion
Denial

"All of the denialist arguments are basically errors based on their misunderstanding of Venter's experiment and evolution in general. Be prepared, they will be recycled heavily."

----------------

Some of the reactions have been seen at DU, too. The article is worth a read, as it explains the fallacies of each response quite well, IMO.

Cheers.

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Duer 157099

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Sat May-22-10 04:25 PM
Response to Original message

1. Agree that it's much ado about nothing

It's difficult to read opinions of people who have no background nor understanding of biology and genetics but yet are deathly concerned about this.

Basically this is just a technical advancement and represents no fundamental change in what's been happening in molecular biology labs over the past several decades.

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Odin2005

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Sat May-22-10 10:25 PM
Response to Original message

2. Since the 70s our society has developed a disgusting degree of technophobia.

It started with anti-Nuclear garbage and spread from there, like a cancer.

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HuckleB

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Sun May-23-10 11:07 AM
Response to Reply #2

4. +1 (Another reason I love Specter's TED talk.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OMLSs8t1ng

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Geoff R. Casavant

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Sat May-22-10 11:17 PM
Response to Original message

3. I for one welcome our new bacterial overlords n/t

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