Craig Venter Created Synthetic Life and it has turned the lay public into bumbling morons

It has been a long time but I felt I had no other place to turn. I just read the NPR article about Craig Venter's project to synthesize a cell and read through the comments left by morons and halfwits on the facebook comment list under the article. This is why scientists are leery to share our findings with the public. Of those who care enough to actually read the article (no giant slice of the population pie that it is) the majority of the comments are outright stupid. I will include these comments along with insight into the issue or derisive insults as appropriate. Names were kept the same to protect us from idiots.

Here goes-

Miles E Batten

btw on the subject of a "superbug" - we've already weaponized small pox and a few other diseases if i'm not mistaken.

You're mistaken. We have not weaponized smallpox but this is a relevant question for bioethicists. We do have controls in place to prevent even genomic regions from Smallpox from being synthesized.

Stephen Adams

Jean Lamont wrote:
"I think the idea of this organism "leaving the lab and running amok" is 100% hysterical and preposterous...." You mean like Monsantos genetically altered corn running amok ? Ever heard of the concept of invasive species? Trust corporations to do the right thing with this is like trusting BP to clean the Gulf of Mexico properly.

Craig Venter's research group is not a corporation and this project is not something that could exist outside the lab. This was an enormous project to synthesize, assemble and transfect DNA into a cell. This is not corn and cannot be planted. It would be fortunate if the cell can survive for long even under the most nurturing of conditions. Take your pent up rage at corporations and corporate irresponsibility and apply it somewhere that makes sense.

Bobbi Brookshire

My little cousin died at 13 from a tumor in his brain. If they could help with something like growing the brain that is fine, but are you killing babies for thier parts?

You are confusing this with stem cells. You are ill informed about stem cells anyway. I suspect that you also have a tumor in your brain.

Michael Burhenne

God creates DNA, DNA becomes man, man destroys god, man creates DNA, DNA becomes zombies, zombies eat man, zombies rule the earth!!! It's the natural order of things.

Well at least I see where this one is coming from.

Darrel Warren

Yay, this finally proves to me that we were not created by a god. I think life is what you get when you have the right environmental conditions, a muddy soup of amino acids, and a lighting strike to that muddy soup.

This does??? I think what this proves is that we can synthesize pieces of DNA, recombine them into bacterial and yeast artificial chromosomes and insert them into a cell. There are lots of questions about how the first cell formed. I find them interesting and like to hypothesize about them, but I don't think that it addresses God or religion or philosophy in any meaningful way.

Eli Lorrain T

o whomever asked why we can do this but can't cure cancer.... well duh. If we cured cancer where would the AMA the HMOs and big Pharma get their mad paychecks? They aren't interested in cures, just "treatment" and all the billable hours and products that go with it.

Is this what you believe? Let me see if I can recapitulate your point of view: the whole healthcare establishment is involved in a conspiracy to prevent cancer from being cured to increase revenues. How does this viewpoint fit with the fact that the National Cancer Institute funds cancer research to the tune of billions of dollars a year resulting in the production of numerous therapeutics to lengthen the lives of cancer patients, slow cancer progression, diagnose cancer before it starts and determine risk?

Andrew Chang

I'm looking forward to my strawberry flavored fish.

We all do.

Miles E Batten

The mistrust of science and underestimation of the integrity of people who work in scientific fields is disappointing but unsurprising to say the least. people get whipped up into such a frenzy over every major scientific breakthrough until it eventually becomes a staple in their lives. genetic manipulation, especially in regards to regenerative medicine, will have a larger impact on contemporary society than the space race and the internet combined.

I friended this person.

Ken Hood

- it was inevitable......but remember, putting the genie back in the bottle is impossible and this kind of work has a habit of getting out of control..........

Vague allusions to scary scenes in science fiction movies. The technology for this achievement existed prior to its undertaking in the same way that the technology to build a wall existed before the construction of the Great Wall of China.

Barbara Babcock

Great...just great. We are overflowing with real life and now scientists want to make artificial life? What are they thinking?

Please, please, one embarrassingly stupid question per session Barbara. This is not a project that culminates in us releasing the product into the wild. This is a lot like the first space shuttle launch. We weren't trying to add clutter to outer space. Certainly there is enough matter already in outer space. This was about proving that we could do it and gaining the insight and technical abilities that go along with having done it.

豪豪

I'm gonna grow myself some hot femmbots.

The sex robot thing keeps coming up. I don't understand the connection.

Bobbi Brookshire

WOW! But why do we want to create babies in a lab, what is the reason?

I think Bobbi didn't read the article closely. They didn't synthesize babies, they synthesized a type of bacteria.

Cory Layman

That's sort of like taking apart a structure of Lego's building a new structure, and then claiming to be the person who invented Lego's. It's not as if we've invented new elements. Everything can be reduced again to it's base, and so it renders no real physical change.

At least Cory understood what the project was about. This accomplishment is notable not for its ingenuity but for the fact that it could be done.

Amanda Davis

I don't like this at all. Like a copy of a copy - the quality degrades. Most people already fail to consider the implications and responsibilities of creating life by natural reproduction, much less in a lab...

I can personally assure you that this cell will not get faded like a fake drivers license- its edges will remain crisp.

I guess I blame the country's high school biology teachers for this but I don't really think it's fair. There were several issues that people addressed over and over again- conflict with the idea of "playing God", issues with misuse of technology, confusion of the issue with stem cell research, paranoia about healthcare, impact on issues of overcrowding and sexy robots.

If the "playing God" people had had more to say about the philosophical underpinnings of why this conflicts with their understanding of creationism, I would feel that the nation's population is being overeducated in religion and undereducated in science. However, the comments were entirely superficial.

Why do people distrust scientists and technology? I would say it is a lack of understanding that breeds fear, but I don't understand the lay public yet I don't fear them. Hmm, noodle scratcher.

Confusion of the issue with stem cell research. Umm, I think people were looking for an excuse to interject a comment demonstrating their commitment to their religion as a way to identify themselves with something larger. Have you considered inserting irrelevant comments that show that you really really like the Pittsburgh Penguins? It would be just as relevant but less inflammatory.

People are paranoid about healthcare for the same reasons they distrust scientists- healthcare workers have deceptively large foreheads and it freaks out stupid people.

Overcrowding makes a bit of sense, as this project was about creating life on a planet that is already rich with life. I think this objection misses the point a bit because Venter's group wasn't undertaking this project to add to the biodiversity of life (which I should point out is always shrinking not growing) but to overcome a technical challenge.

Finally, the sexy robot argument. This could have been meant as a joke but a dozen people came to it independently which makes me wonder about an unmet market need.