Live data from Hacker News

Bacteria with synthetic gene circuit self-assemble into working device

pratt.duke.edu

1–10 of 21 posts

Re: Bacteria with synthetic gene circuit self-assemble into working device

#3

Bacteria with a synthetic gene . This is not a newly-discovered property of naturally-occurring bacteria, as the title would lead you to believe.

Is there a systemic reason for why they can't or do you mean that only "none of the known bacteria don't" (build sensors)?

Re: Bacteria with synthetic gene circuit self-assemble into working device

#5

Bacteria with a synthetic gene . This is not a newly-discovered property of naturally-occurring bacteria, as the title would lead you to believe.

Is there a systemic reason for why they can't or do you mean that only "none of the known bacteria don't" (build sensors)?

[deleted]

Re: Bacteria with synthetic gene circuit self-assemble into working device

#6

Bacteria with a synthetic gene . This is not a newly-discovered property of naturally-occurring bacteria, as the title would lead you to believe.

Is there a systemic reason for why they can't or do you mean that only "none of the known bacteria don't" (build sensors)?

I mean, the article is about a gene that caused the bacteria to build sensors, not anything else. I don't know what bacteria can or can't do. (E.g. Ants are known to self-assemble into useful structures such as bridges. So that being true of bacteria is believable, hence my confusion.)

Re: Bacteria with synthetic gene circuit self-assemble into working device

#10
post #7

Bacteria are already working devices.

I'm not a native speaker, but the primary meaning of "device" is "piece of equipment made for a particular purpose" (see Wiktionary [1]).

I really don't think evolution counts, here.

1: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/device

Post reply on HN