Life with a price of 6000 €

• [http://omnibus.uni-freiburg.de/~kouznet/life6000.pdf Life with a price of 6000 €]

Now we see it could be cheaper, but it will need a great intellectual impact. So, we’re opened for sponsors and relationships.

Comments

As I understand it, the idea is to create a "life automaton" consisting of 6 proteins? That is what I took out of your proposal. That seems quite ambitioned, but I can't really judge it, and even if it is quite ambitioned, that does not mean that it is bad, of course.

My understanding says that you are using 6000 € for denovo synthesis of 6 genes required for making minimal life. Right?

So, what if after all the simulations and tests on the computer, you order the DNA for minimal life and it turns out that it doesn't work... What will you do then?

This is because biology is unpredictable and you must not assume that the DNA which you order will work in the first time itself... You must keep some backup money or plans...

You have to separate specifically the general and specific objectives to long and short time; implications, obstacles and limitations.

OK, fine.. So you want to go in a completely different direction by creating alternative life.. Good.. All the best for this project.

Well, if you want to go to the extremes then are you limiting yourself to already established phenomena such as DNA, membranes, etc. You may want to adopt a completely new and novel ideas which might be simpler than DNA and other stuff of the normal cell.

So, keep all the options open. Research the literature well and create Artificial Life...

Questions and answers

• - Dilettante: "Where is a place of synthetic biology here - good old gene engineering > bio-nanotechnology > artificial life > artificial intelligence?"
  - Expert: "Hmmm..."
• - Professor: "What is new in Synthetic Biology?"
  - Undergraduate student: "Wiki!!!"
• On a disco field:
  - "Did you hear about Synthetic Biology?"
  - "Oh yes, it’s like a HypeHope!"
• People on a street:
  - "What is a synthetic biology - science or technology?"
  - "Expedition."
  - "No, it’s a new culture."
  - "Yes, it’s an art of self-modification!"
  - "Hmm, I think it will be a time of Lamarckian evolution."
• - Shrödinger: “What is life?”
  - Alice: “It’s a play where rules are constantly changed.”
  - Correspondent: “...and, who does manage these rules, God?”
  - PhD student: “God is a notation x operating outside the visible world.”
  - iGEM instructor: “The rules are managed by those people from MIT”