Dec 132011
Life-like cells are made of metal
Short form: at the University of Glasgow, scientists have created little metal bubbles that have many of the properties of primitive cells. They cannot yet self replicate or evolve, but they’re working on that.
5 Responses to “Now available: metal-based artificial life”
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We do what me must, because we can…
Lets be honest here, if I was in charge of a super advanced biolab that could create custom life forms and one of the lab flunkies said to me “Hey man, wanna create werewolves, hyper-intelligent sapient squid and triffids?” I’d be all like “LETS F*CKING DO IT!”
Hmm.
I think that a bio-weapon will nearly wipe us out. But fortunately Paul Allen, Burt Rutan, Elon Musk and Tim Pickens have joined together today to create monster air-launched Falcon/Dragon vehicles, so at least there will be tourists in Bigelow modules to watch the earth self destruct.
I wonder if I was in charge of a super advanced anti-satellite weapon lab, and a plague was wiping out humanity, would I shoot down the ISS and the Bigelow space hotels out of spite?
Hmm.
No need for end of the world thinking. I guess that any metal based life would work best belowground away from oxygen–so it might be better to seed worlds with low oxygen but with high levels of ammonia and silicon. My guess is that metal based life might actually be sensitive to what we weather every day…
Well, with self replication we could see a situation more like gray-goo…