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The Cell Hijackers.

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  • المؤلفون: Brooks, Rodney
  • المصدر:
    Technology Review. Jun2004, Vol. 107 Issue 5, p31-31. 1p.
  • معلومة اضافية
    • الموضوع:
    • نبذة مختصرة :
      This article provides information on two examples of some early progress in the field of synthetic biology, as of June 2004. During the 1940s, John von Neumann, popular in the development of modern computers, investigated the theoretical possibilities of self-reproduction. Von Neumann essentially asserted that a self-reproducible machine would require a tape or other description of itself. During reproduction, this tape would serve as the set of instructions for building a copy of the machine and would itself be copied to create the seed necessary for the next generation. Apparently, DNA turned out to have precisely such properties. One of the very first computer scientists, a mathematician and engineer, made a prediction of the fundamental mechanism of life that biologists subsequently discovered. Allegedly, in a forthcoming denouement, engineering is poised for a triumphant comeback in molecular biology. The last fifty years of molecular biology have largely been devoted to understanding the incredibly complex mechanisms that govern life. Scientists have developed wonderful analytic tools to study what goes on in cells. Presently, experts are on the brink of an engineering revolution that will allegedly transform the ability to manipulate the biological world.