Page 42 - 200710 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - October 2007

In The News 42 In The News 42 Ball of fire still a first ever artificial life form which he hails as a statement at the time. Ball of fire still a The group also added that "patent mystery potential remedy to illness and global warming. experts consulted by the ETC Group indicate mystery Venter told Britain's The Guardian newspaper Saturday that he has built a synthetic that, based on the language used in the Officials say reported chromosome using chemicals made in a application, the Venter Institute researchers had Officials say reported probably not achieved a fully-functioning flaming object most likely a laboratory, and is set to announce the discovery organism at the time of the filing." flaming object most likely a within weeks, possibly as early as Monday. meteor The breakthrough, which Venter hopes Nevertheless, "many people think that meteor could help develop new energy sources to Venter's company has the scientific expertise to By Dolly A. Butz combat the negative effects of climate change, do the job," Mooney added. [] Journal staff writer would be "a very important philosophical step tudy: Inca drugged in the history of our species," he told the S Study: Inca drugged newspaper. children sacrifices Officials may never know if the flaming However the prospect of engineering children sacrifices object shooting through the sky Wednesday artificial life forms is highly controversial and afternoon was in fact a meteor. likely to arouse heated debate over the ethics "We can't confirm at all what it is," said and potential ramifications of such an advance. Researchers studied hair from the heads Todd Heitkamp, warning and coordination Pat Mooney, director of the Canadian and in small bags accompanying four mummies meteorologist with the National Weather bioethics organization ETC Group, told the of children sacrificed in Inca rituals. Their Service in Sioux Falls. "There's suspicion that it paper that Venter was creating "a chassis on findings are reported in Tuesday's issue of was a meteorite, but we have no confirmation which you could build almost anything. Proceedings of the National Academy of whatsoever." "It could be a contribution to humanity Sciences. Heitkamp said no one was monitoring such as new drugs or a huge threat to humanity The children's hair had been cut first a meteorite activity over Sioux City at the time such as bio-weapons." year and then six months before they were the ball of fire was spotted. The chromosome which Venter and his killed. By studying the chemicals preserved in Around 2 p.m. Wednesday the team has created is known as Mycoplasma the hair researchers can calculate the diet of the Woodbury County Communications Center laboratorium and, in the final step of the children. received reports of something falling from the process, will be transplanted into a living cell The Inca lived in the area that is now sky. Communications center director Glenn where it should "take control," effectively Peru and were conquered by the invading Sedivy said callers talked about a "fire ball," becoming a new life form. Spanish in the early 1500s. but they were not able to give a good The single cell organism, which ETC The children's diet was initially focused description of its location. The calls were has coined "Synthia," is piloted by a on vegetables such as the potato, but in the last forwarded to emergency responders. chromosome with just 381 genes, the limit year of their lives it was enriched with corn -- an Sioux City Police Lt. Marti Reilly said necessary to sustain the life of the bacteria so it elite food -- and protein probably from llama he heard sightings of something coming out of can feed and reproduce. meat, according to the researchers led by the sky east of Merrill. Officers weren't The new bacteria will therefore be Andrew Wilson of the University of Bradford in dispatched because police could not confirm largely artificial, though not entirely, because it England. the flaming object landed in Sioux City, he said. is composed of building blocks from already "Given the surprising change in their Authorities at the Plymouth County existing organisms. The idea is to make it into a diets and the symbolic cutting of their hair, it Sheriff's Office said a caller south of Hinton universal tool for biologists by according it the appears that various events were staged in told dispatchers they thought they saw genes necessary to accomplish certain tasks. which the status of the children was raised," something fall from the sky by Hinton. A The project, which Venter has been Wilson said in a statement. "In effect, their motorist traveling on Highway 75 also reported working on for five years along with a team of countdown to sacrifice had begun some seeing a flaming object in the sky a mile west researchers, has been partially financed by the considerable time prior to death." and a mile north of Merrill. US Department of Energy in the hopes that it Changes in the hair samples indicate that Gary Junge, emergency management could lead to the creation of a new in their last 3-to-4 months the children began coordinator for Plymouth County, said he heard environmentally friendly fuel. their pilgrimage to the mountains, probably of reports of meteor sightings from Sergeant "We are going from reading our genetic from Cuzco, the Inca capital. Bluff to Sioux County. code to the ability to write it. That gives us the The scientists are not certain how the Heitkamp said meteor sightings are not hypothetical ability to do things never children died, but think they were given maize uncommon. contemplated before," Venter said. beer and coca leaves. "We have meteorites that hit the A Venter spokeswoman however "It looks to us as though the children atmosphere all the time," he said. "This one declined to confirm any breakthrough. were led up to the summit shrine in the here, if it was a meteorite, just happened to be "The Guardian is ahead of themselves culmination of a yearlong rite, drugged and then large enough to reach further into the on this," Venter spokeswoman Heather left to succumb to exposure," said co-author atmosphere than what most of them do before Kowalski told AFP. Timothy Taylor, also of the University of burning up." "We have not achieved what some have Bradford. [] Meteoroids are tiny particles about the speculated we have in synthetic life," Kowalski size of a grain of sand. They are usually residue said. "When we do so there will be a scientific from comets. If a meteoroid encounters the publication and we are likely months away Earth's upper atmosphere, it vaporizes in an from that." event called a meteor. If the object survives and Venter's laboratory, the J. Craig Venter hits the ground, it is referred to as a meteorite. Institute, filed in 2006 for a US patent on the Source: National Weather Service [] organism, claiming exclusive ownership of a set of essential genes and a synthetic "free-living US scientist heralds organism that can grow and replicate." US scientist heralds The ETC group publicized the patent 'artificial life' application, which would apply in the United 'artificial life' breakthrough states and 100 or so other countries, in June. breakthrough "Venter and his colleagues have breached a societal boundary, and the public WASHINGTON (AFP) - Controversial hasn't even had a chance to debate the far- celebrity US scientist Craig Venter has reaching social, ethical and environmental announced he is on the verge of creating the implications of synthetic life," Mooney said in a