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For first time, a cell built from scratch grows and divides

quantamagazine.org

291–300 of 323 posts

Re: For first time, a cell built from scratch grows and divides

#292
post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

our paper to a database venue about bringing GPU support to Presto was rejected. one of the reviewers wrote, and I quote verbatim: "the topic of the paper is too practical". I just couldn't help but laughed at it.

Too practical haha Maybe they just wanted hype?

Or perhaps they wanted something theoritical that advances the state of the art in database design and architecture (which is the whole purpose of academic reasearch/conference/etc) - not merely some report describing doing something that's already been done for a different DB.

Re: For first time, a cell built from scratch grows and divides

#294

“This was where the field had been stuck for some time. Researchers before Adamala had figured out different ways to feed and grow synthetic cells and to replicate their DNA. But cell division is a different beast. A typical cell reorganizes its cytoskeleton — a network of protein fibers that provide structural support — to halve its DNA and split. Synthetic biologists could not figure out how to get their cells to u…

The interesting bit is that they didn't solve division by rebuilding the whole cytoskeleton, they sort of sidestepped it

Re: For first time, a cell built from scratch grows and divides

#295

You stumble upon a news article from 2226. You read it to see who, between Google, OpenAI and Anthropic, won the AI race. Instead, your learn about Biotic. It's now the leading polity in the solar system and its environs. It bought Alphabet, OpenAI and Anthropic in a single day back in 2084. Humans are no longer desired. Their reproduction is capped to an optimal minimum assuring the survival of the species as a reli…

[dead]

Re: For first time, a cell built from scratch grows and divides

#297
post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What they meant when they said "planets" was the 8 (previously 9, previously to that 8, previously 7...) known and named planets in our own solar system. A hypothetical "Journal of Planets" that was actually about solar system astronomy wouldn't necessarily have known what to do with a new paper about 51 Pegasi b published 30 years ago. They're thinking "when we said planets, we actually always meant solar system pla…

> What they meant when they said "planets" Who is "they", and how do you know what they meant? The relevant fact is that the claim "Exoplanets also aren't planets" is simply wrong -- exoplanets are by definition planets outside the solar system. It's like claiming that a brown furple isn't a furple -- the claim is wrong, regardless of what one thinks a furple is. > The reviewer of this paper is saying that by biology…

> exoplanets are by definition planets outside the solar system. It's like claiming that a brown furple isn't a furple -- the claim is wrong, regardless of what one thinks a furple is.

If only language was so logical.

While I happen to agree that exoplanets are planets, as with my point in the other comment, I aver the stronger claim ("regardless") does not follow in this context.

Stonehenge, after which the concept of a henge is named, does not meet the current archeological definition of a henge: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henge

Jerusalem artichokes are neither artichokes nor from Jerusalem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_artichoke

Guinea pigs are not pigs and are not from Guinea: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinea_pig

The "mincemeat" in a mince pie is, these days, usually vegetarian: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mincemeat

Chinese checkers is German and plays nothing like checkers. Peanuts are not nuts, strawberries are not berries, hamburgers do not generally contain ham, a killer whale is actually a dolphin, etc.

Re: For first time, a cell built from scratch grows and divides

#299
post #3

Interesting that this is led by the same Dr. Kate Adamala who ended the right-handed-proteins experiment a couple of years ago. Given how close she was I'm not surprised she's made this work.

Back then, it sounded like making right-handed life was decades away. But with this work, couldn't you just as easily make this kind of synthetic cell right-handed?

AFAIK she was saying we were years not decades away which is what made her nervous. We were very close and the risks hadn't been fully explored.

Re: For first time, a cell built from scratch grows and divides

#300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, that doesn't make sense. What's a meteor?

The streak of light generated by a small astronomical body as it moves through the atmosphere of earth (or another astronomical body).

Meteoroid then.

Asteroids and meteoroids are the same, except for where they are positions.

Mothers and women are the same, except for their relationships to others.

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