Sunday, August 19, 2007

Artificial life likely in 3 to 10 years

Around the world, a handful of scientists are trying to create life from scratch and they're getting closer.

Experts expect an announcement within three to 10 years from someone in the now little-known field of "wet artificial life."

"It's going to be a big deal and everybody's going to know about it," said Mark Bedau, chief operating officer of ProtoLife of Venice, Italy, one of those in the race. "We're talking about a technology that could change our world in pretty fundamental ways -- in fact, in ways that are impossible to predict."


Any guesses on how long it takes before this stuff gets weaponized?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

My rule of thumb is..if you read about it now..its been a done deal for quite some time. It did not take long centuries ago for armies to take plague victims and sling them over castle walls to infect those behind the walls.
The British used botulii granades to do assasinations, and even live badgers to assault their enemies.
The Russians are notorious for their research . The chances for us being undone by a runaway lifeform is greater than an asteroid hit for sure.

SyS