[HN Gopher] Artificial Cells That Mimic Living Cells' Ability to...
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       Artificial Cells That Mimic Living Cells' Ability to Capture,
       Process and Expel
        
       Author : gmays
       Score  : 64 points
       Date   : 2021-09-09 14:35 UTC (8 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.nyu.edu)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.nyu.edu)
        
       | formvoltron wrote:
       | Was thinking about this the other day.
       | 
       | Could we create synthetic cells with little mini scripts running
       | inside? They could perhaps recognize a cancer cell or bacteria
       | cell and then kill it.
        
       | btbuildem wrote:
       | So, building blocks for nanites?
        
         | kiba wrote:
         | We already have nanites. It's called green goo.
        
         | google234123 wrote:
         | Blockchain nanites?
        
           | api wrote:
           | AI powered block chain nanites as a service.
        
             | tmccrary55 wrote:
             | Distributed Grey Goo
        
               | google234123 wrote:
               | This could be a perfect proof of work scheme.
        
       | koeng wrote:
       | Original paper link - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03774-y
       | 
       | From a synthetic biologists perspective: Very cool work! It
       | doesn't get us that much closer to fully synthetic life (ie, self
       | replicating), but can likely be used for interesting devices.
        
         | pfd1986 wrote:
         | Paul Chaikin, Ned Seeman and other folks at NYU have made some
         | interesting experiments towards self-replicating artificial
         | building blocks, if you're interested...
         | 
         | https://www.nature.com/articles/nature10500
         | https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2009/sm/b8176...
        
           | phkahler wrote:
           | As a huge fan STEM fields and biology, I have to ask if this
           | type of thing should even be allowed. We dont know - but what
           | if the current pandemic is a result of "gain of function"
           | research? Never mind weather it is or not, its plausible and
           | that should raise concern. Anyone making self replicating
           | _anything_ IMHO should think twice, or thrice. Dont get me
           | wrong, that stuff is really interesting - to the point where
           | a lot of people won 't be willing to seriously consider the
           | question "should we?"
        
             | wanderingmind wrote:
             | Do you think China and Russia are going to stop working on
             | these technologies just because the west buries its head in
             | the sand? Technical innovation is a race and unfortunately
             | such technologies that gets us closer to artificial cells
             | that have a huge weaponizing potential will be worked on by
             | someone at some corner in the world. So it's better to be
             | done first by people who believe in rule of law and
             | individual rights.
        
             | idiotsecant wrote:
             | The question, I think, is not whether we should or should
             | not. That is irrelevant. Someone eventually _will_ whether
             | that someone is us or not and the end result is still a
             | possible release of grey goo. The question is how we
             | prepare for someone having it who will do things with it we
             | might find irresponsible or dangerous. It seems like
             | historically the answer to that question is  'we should
             | make it first'.
        
               | kiba wrote:
               | Given "green goo", there's no guarantee that grey goo
               | will be more troublesome to control than green goo.
               | 
               | Indeed, green goo is already completely out of control,
               | with viruses for pretty much every life form on earth,
               | and yet almost all viruses are not harmful to us, ditto
               | for biological lifeforms.
        
               | TeMPOraL wrote:
               | But that's just it. We are all made from green goo.
               | Viruses, bacteria, plant cells, human cells - they're all
               | just a variation of this. Fluctuations that exist because
               | the green goo isn't too stable over time.
               | 
               | Now, if you introduce a completely different type of goo,
               | that happens to outcompete the green goo, the effect
               | might just be total replacement of the green with grey.
               | And who knows, maybe in a million years, that grey goo
               | will evolve into a rich ecology, eventually giving rise
               | to a sentient species. But from where I sit, I don't like
               | the part where green is eaten by grey.
        
               | ByersReason wrote:
               | If that were true, we would have no problems with lack of
               | immunity to things, or invasive species and organisms
               | displacing things in ecosystems.
        
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