Faith and Science: Creation of Artificial Life – A grand feat of engineering or playing God

I now believe this is one of the most dangerous technologies that mankind has acquired. Using it, the arrogant among mankind will try to create anything that can come to their imagination. The implications of this are massive.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Staff | Research
Source & Credit: Fajr Blog | May 21, 2010
By Dr. Tauseef Khan | UK

On 20th of May 2010 a breakthrough in synthetic biology was announced. Some hailed it as important if not more than the previous major milestones like the decoding of the human genome and the cloning of the sheep, Dolly.

Craig Venter and colleagues announced that they have created a synthetic (or artificial) life. It is the the first microbe that thrives and replicates with only a synthetic genome to guide it. Every “letter” of its genetic code was made in the laboratory and stitched together, forming an artificial chromosome 1m characters long. It took them 15 years and $40 million dollars. In summary they made bacterial genome from smaller synthetic DNA subunits, then transplanted the whole genome into another cell and booted it up. Thus strictly speaking what they produced was not an artificial life but a synthetic cell. [1]


This team of researchers cloned the first synthetic virus in 2003 and then in 2008 managed to assemble the entire genome of a small bacterium in a yeast cell. In 2009 they transplanted a genome from one bacterium to another. Now they have brought all these previous discoveries together to produce an synthetic genome using template from a bacterium (Mycoplasma Mycoides). They replaced the genome in a cell (Mycoplasma Capricolum) with this artificially produced genome (one million base pairs) and then got the cell to run. The cell produced has been shown to divide and grow on its own in the lab while. This is clearly a big step towards designer organisms. An interesting fact is that the researchers added four watermarks in the code to distinguish it as a synthetic microbe including names, sentences, an email address and a website.

The researchers have said that this technology will enable bacterial cells to be designed that will produce medicine, vaccines, fuels, industrial compounds, and even absorb greenhouse gases.

The bacterium used as a template for the synthetic DNA is Mycoplamsa Mycoides, a goat pathogen. Thus this synthetic DNA is very similar to Mycoplasma Mycoides with some limited modifications. While the researchers claim that all pathogenic genes have been removed but no one knows what will happen if this synthetic bacteria gets released into the wild. Some say it can exterminate its natural cousin (the real Mycoplasma Mycoides), infect its cousin with synthetic DNA through horizontal gene transfer producing a strain that can wreak havoc in goats. The main problem is that no one including Craig Venter and his team, have any idea what will happen if such designer bacteria are released into the wild. This is a very dangerous road.

And this dangerous road has been clearly highlighted in the Holy Qur’an:

…And he (Satan) said, ‘I will assuredly take a fixed portion from Thy servants; ‘And assuredly I will lead them astray and assuredly I will excite in them vain desires, and assuredly I will incite them and they will cut the ears of cattle and assuredly I will incite them and they will effect a change in the creation of Allah.’ And he who takes Satan as a friend besides Allah has certainly suffered a manifest loss. (4:119-120)

In these verses some of the malicious intent of Satan are highlighted. Satan here would also mean men who have such malefic intent. The first part talks about cutting the ears of cattle, this was about the custom among pagans who mutilated animals in name of their gods. However the next part is insightful “I will incite then and they will effect a change in the creation of Allah”. It clearly gives an indication that man one day will be able to change creation of Allah. This includes using genetic engineering to change nature of creation and also taking it a step further by producing creatures so different that they might be called artificial. The verse highlights a danger and then says: “he who takes Satan as friend besides Allah has certainly suffered a manifest loss”. Therefore the danger is real and a great loss to humanity and life on this earth real. What we need to do is be very cautious and think and ponder at every step what kind of research is being done and is it being monitored closely. This topic is dealt in-depth in the book Revelation Rationality, Knowledge & Truth by Hadhrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad (rha). [2]

However, this verse does not completely ban all genetic engineering. Any branch of science which is pressed into service of helping his creation and employed to protect and not to change is certainly most welcome. Genetics engineering is already helping in restoring those with genetic defects and producing better crops. However unchecked genetic engineering like the one under discussion has a great possibility of unseen and dramatic side-effects.

When asked of the dangers posed, the researchers posit methods to control the disaster of their creation going haywire. If in a scenario the bacteria is let loose, they can use genetic sequences cannot exist in nature, insert artificial weaknesses so that it cannot survive, or insert suicide genes so it can be killed by an agent if needed. However, no one know how fast will it mutate if did get outside lab. Additionally in this case the bacteria is one that no immune system has ever seen. In the worse case scenario it can start infecting other organisms. The polio virus genome synthesized in 2002 by Eckard Wimmer was 7,500 units in length, and the bacterial genome Craig Venter has made is more than 100 times longer. The synthetic polio genome was shown to build a live polio virus that could infect and kill mice, it is just a wonder what kind of effect this synthetic bacterial genome can reap with far more complex bacterial cell.

Craig Venter has a contract with Exxon to generate biofuels from artificial super-algae and they are ready to spend upto $600 million on this. I am afraid with money like this on offer this science will open a gold rush. Scientists with imperious disposition would readily jump to produce more and more complex bacteria, followed by multicellular organisms and eventually artificial insects and even animals!

This is why I now believe this is one of the most dangerous technologies that mankind has acquired. Using it, the arrogant among mankind will try to create anything that can come to their imagination. The implications of this are massive. What happens when the human race is no longer the dominant species? Do we kill off the mistake we created? Or does it decide to make us its slave?

I can only hope and pray that the checks and controls kept on synthetic biology field are able to stop this kind of result. However, only time will tell if mankind heeds the message contained in the Holy Qur’an since 1400 years ago.

References

[1] Gibson, D. G., Glass, J. I., Lartigue, C., Noskov, V. N., Chuang, R., A, M., et al. (2010). Creation of a Bacterial Cell Controlled by a Chemically Synthesized Genome. Science, (May). doi: 10.1126/science.1190719.

[2] Hadhrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad. (1998). Genetic Engineering. In Revelation, Rationality, Knowledge and Truth. Retrieved from http://www.alislam.org/library/books/revelation/part_6_section_4.html



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