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If recycled paper and plastic products were not enough, Motorola has now launched a cellphone made from recycled plastic water bottles.
Called the MOTO W233 Renew, the mobile phone not only boasts plastic exterior made from recycled material, but also the device is the first "carbon neutral" phone, said the company.
"Through an alliance with Carbonfund.org, Motorola offsets the carbon dioxide required to manufacture, distribute and operate the phone through investments in renewable energy sources and reforestation," All Headlines News quoted Motorola as saying in a press release.
In fact, the box that contains the phone is also made from recycled material, according to the media release.
Another postage-paid box comes inside the package, which is also made from recycled paper, and can be used by customers to mail their old phones back to Motorola for recycling.
With nine hours of talk time, the phone includes other features like ChrystalTalk technology and messaging capabilities.
MOTO W233 Renew will hit the shelves during the first quarter of 2009 at T-Mobile stores.
Motorola unveiled the phone at the 2009 International CES in Las Vegas.
Get ready for a supercar that could reach a top speed of 155mph without harming the environment, for it runs on wind energy.
Designed in California, the environmentally friendly Formula AE car will initially use a solar-powered battery to move, but later depend upon the airflow around it to power a turbine.
The high performance car will take less than four seconds to accelerate from 0 to 60 mph.
The car is expected to cost around 100,000 pounds when it hits the market.
The two-seater's bodywork boasts paper-thin solar panelling that could fully charge the battery in just 1.5 hours.
However, this time will be reduced to just six minutes with a new prototype battery.
A full battery would enable the drivers to cover more than 200 miles or to race around a track for at least an hour.
An advanced alternating current induction motor with a power output of 212 kilowatts will propel the Formula AE.
In fact, the chassis will be constructed from lightweight aluminium and super strong steel in a Formula 1-style monocoque shell. Rory Handel and Maxx Bricklinas from Beverly Hills, California designed the sleek motor of the car, and they expect the prototype to be completed in August.
"The Formula AE car embraces a rarely thought of alternative source of energy," the Telegraph quoted a RORMaxx spokesman as saying.
He said: "The target market would be the sports car, track day, eco-concerned auto-enthusiast. In addition, those enthusiasts who support and would want to promote the future development of revolutionary green technologies."
A compact fibre-optic probe developed for the space programme is proving itself as the first non-invasive early detection device for cataract, the leading cause of vision loss worldwide.
Researchers from the National Eye Institute (NEI), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) collaborated to develop a simple, safe eye test for measuring a protein related to cataract formation.
If subtle protein changes can be detected before a cataract develops, people may be able to avert the risk by cutting down exposure to sunlight, quitting smoking, stopping certain medications and controlling diabetes.
"By the time the eye's lens appears cloudy from a cataract, it is too late to reverse or medically treat this process," said Manuel B. Datiles III, NEI medical officer and co-author lead author of the clinical study.
"This technology can detect the earliest damage to lens proteins, triggering an early warning for cataract formation and blindness."
The new device is based on a laser light technique called dynamic light scattering (DLS). It was initially developed to analyse the growth of protein crystals in a zero-gravity space environment.
The DLS technique will now assist vision scientists in looking at long-term lens changes due to aging, smoking, diabetes, LASIK surgery, eye drops for treating glaucoma, and surgical removal of the vitreous gel within the eye, a procedure known to cause cataracts within six months to one year.
It may also help in the early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, in which an abnormal protein may be found in the lens. In addition, NASA researchers will continue to use the device to look at the impact of long-term space travel on the visual system.
NASA's Rafat R. Ansari, senior scientist at the John H. Glenn Research Centre and the study co-author, brought the technology's possible clinical applications to the attention of NEI vision researchers when he learned that his father's cataracts were caused by changes in lens proteins.
Several proteins are involved in cataract formation, but one known as alpha-crystallin serves as the eye's own anti-cataract molecule.
Alpha-crystallin binds to other proteins when they become damaged, thus preventing them from bunching together to form a cataract. However, humans are born with a fixed amount of alpha-crystallin, so if the supply becomes depleted due to radiation exposure, smoking, diabetes or other causes, a cataract can result.
"We have shown that this non-invasive technology that was developed for the space program can now be used to look at the early signs of protein damage due to oxidative stress, a key process involved in many medical conditions, including age-related cataract and diabetes, as well as neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's," said Ansari.
"By understanding the role of protein changes in cataract formation, we can use the lens not just to look at eye disease, but also as a window into the whole body."
While nearby porn stars autographed action photos and flashed their assets for camera-clutching fans at the annual Adult Entertainment
Expo, Brett Drysdale discretely demonstrated “the newest breakthrough in sex technology”.
He slipped two fingers into a rocket-shaped RealTouch device “developed and tested by a former Nasa engineer” contains belts, lubrication jets, heating elements and other gadgetry programmed to give men the feeling of sex. One end of the canister-type devices sized to fit easily in one’s lap is made of soft “Haptic” synthetic material akin to that used for nipples of baby bottles. The faux-flesh wall is slotted to allow the insertion of a body part of a man’s choosing.
RealTouch devices connect to computers with USB cables and synchronize with adult movies streamed online so the inner workings replicate what a fellow might be feeling were he to be the man in the film. “You watch the action on a screen and a signal is sent to the box to simulate what is happening,” Drysdale said. A dual track of variegated rubber runs inside the unit, with a water-based lubricant reservoir making sure that none of your sacred parts catch on fire.
The device works with video from an online RealTouch “theater” at a price of $1 per minute. RealTouch is priced at $150 and begins selling in the US in February. RealTouch product manager Drysdale said on Sunday that it will be available internationally by mid-year.
Stanford University is launching a 100 million US dollar energy institute to fund research into batteries, solar cells and other aspects of green energy.
The California University has spawned technologies that led to the formation of companies like Hewlett Packard and Google, and the new institute is expected to boost the ability of Silicon Valley to become a world leader in green energy. The tech region already boasts a 500 million US dollar energy institute at the University of California at Berkeley.
"The biggest renewable resource is the sun," said Lynn Orr, who will direct the new institute, which was officially launched Monday night.
"But we need to lower the cost of converting sunlight into electricity and supplying it through a much improved electric grid. The new centre will allow us to expand significantly our effort to develop new nanostructure materials for solar energy and energy storage and to work on the host of social, market and policy issues involved in the needed transition to energy systems with significant fractions of renewable."
Venture capitalist John Doerr, who launched companies like Apple, Sun and Google, said the institute would help turn Silicon Valley into Solar Valley. Already there were 200 start-ups in the region concentrating on solar energy, he said.
"Batteries are the holy grail of renewable energy and the US isn't even in the battery race," said Doerr. "We are not doing enough research," he said. "The Internet is a trillion-dollar economy and energy is a $6-trillion economy - it could be the largest economic opportunity of the 21st century."
Scientists have raised fresh hopes of finding evidence of life on Mars with the detection of 'plumes' of methane gas on the red planet,which has gripped the public imagination for more than a century as a possible home for aliens.
In the strongest indicator yet of life on Mars, the 'plumes' of methane gas belched in vast quantities in our world by cows, was detected by orbiting spacecraft and from Earth using giant telescopes, the Sun reported today.
According to the British tabloid, alien microbes living just below the Martian soil are responsible for a haze of methane around the red planet, Nasa scientists believe.
Furthermore, Nasa has found the gas in the same regions as clouds of water vapour, the vital "drink" needed to support life.
UK Mars expert Professor Colin Pillinger, who masterminded the unsuccessful Beagle 2 mission to Mars in 2003, believes the methane can only point to the presence of life on the planet.
"Methane is a product of biology. For methane to be in Mars' atmosphere, there has to be a replenishable source," he told paper.
"The most obvious source of methane is organisms. So if you find methane in an atmosphere, you can suspect there is life. It's not proof, but it makes it worth a much closer look," he stressed.
John Murray -- a member of the Mars Express European space probe team -- believes the mini-Martians may be in a form of suspended animation and could even be revived.
He has found overwhelming evidence of a vast frozen ocean beneath the dust near the Martian equator where simple life could have thrived as microbes.
Brad Bebout, a NASA microbiologist, said if methane is present in the atmosphere of Mars, then something must be producing it on the planet now, because the gas is broken down by sunlight within 300 years.
Most methane on Earth is created by primitive microbes, although some is produced by reactions between water and hot, carbon-bearing rocks. It has not yet been established if either of these are the cause for methane on the Red Planet.
Britain's top space expert Nick Pope hailed the new evidence of life as "the most important discovery of all time". He said: "What could be more profound than to know it's not just us out there?
The red planet resembles Earth in many ways. It is made of rock, it has an atmosphere and weather systems.
Proof that water is still on Mars came in 2007 when Mars Express used ground-piercing radar to study the region around the planet's South Pole.
Nasa's latest lander Phoenix dug up chunks of Martian ice last year. It swiftly evaporated into the thin atmosphere.
"If there is life on Mars then the logical conclusion is that there must be life elsewhere too," Pope said.
An announcement is expected to confirm NASA has found the strongest evidence yet of organisms just below the Martian soil.
The length of a man’s ring finger may predict his success as a financial trader. Researchers at the University of Cambridge in England report that men with longer ring fingers, compared to their index fingers, tended to be more successful in the frantic high-frequency trading in the London financial district.
Indeed, the impact of biology on success was about equal to years of experience at the job, the team led by physiologist John Coates reports in Monday’s edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The same ring-to-index finger ratio has previously been associated with success in competitive sports such as soccer and basketball, the researchers noted.
The length ratio between those two fingers is determined during the development of the fetus and the relatively longer ring finger indicates greater exposure to the male hormone androgen, the researchers noted.
Previous studies have found that such exposure can lead to increased confidence, risk preferences, search persistence, heightened vigilance and quickened reaction times.
In the new study, the researchers measured the right hands of 44 male stock traders who were engaged in a type of trade that involved rapid decision-making and quick physical reactions.
Over 20 months those with longer ring fingers compared to their index fingers made 11 times more money than those with the shortest ring fingers. Over the same time the most experienced traders made about 9 times more than the least experienced ones.
Looking only at experienced traders, the long-ring-finger folks earned 5 times more than those with short ring fingers.
While the finger ratio, showing fetal exposure to male hormones, appears to signal likely success in high-actively trading that calls for risk-taking and quick reactions, it may not indicate people who would do well at other sorts of financial activities, the researchers said. Some traders require additional skills on dealing with clients and sales workers.
Too much coffee not just makes napping difficult but also dramatically increases the risk of hallucinating, according to a new study.
The research has found that people with a higher caffeine intake, from sources such as coffee, tea and caffeinated energy drinks, are more likely to report hallucinatory experiences such as hearing voices and seeing things that are not there.
'High caffeine users' can be defined as those individuals who consume more than the equivalent of seven cups of instant coffee a day.
Such drinkers were three times more likely to have heard a person's voice when there was no one there compared with 'low caffeine users' who consumed less than the equivalent of one cup of instant coffee a day, the study found.
In the study, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and the Medical Research Council, 200 students were asked about their typical intake of caffeine containing products, such as coffee, tea and energy drinks as well as chocolate bars and caffeine tablets.
Their proneness to hallucinatory experiences, and their stress levels, were also assessed. Seeing things that were not there, hearing voices, and sensing the presence of dead people were amongst the experiences reported by some of the participants.
The researchers, whose paper is published in the academic journal Personality and Individual Differences, say their finding could be down to the fact that caffeine has been found to exacerbate the physiological effects of stress.
When under stress, the body releases a stress hormone called cortisol. More of this stress hormone is released in response to stress when people have recently had caffeine. It is this extra boost of cortisol which may link caffeine intake with an increased tendency to hallucinate, say the scientists.
Lead author, Simon Jones, a PhD student at Durham University's Psychology Department, said: "This is a first step towards looking at the wider factors associated with hallucinations. Previous research has highlighted a number of important factors, such as childhood trauma, which may lead to clinically relevant hallucinations.
"Many such factors are thought to be linked to hallucinations in part because of their impact on the body's reaction to stress. Given the link between food and mood, and particularly between caffeine and the body's response to stress, it seems sensible to examine what a nutritional perspective may add."
The loss of a single protein within the surface layer of the joint cartilage is linked to osteoarthritis.
"We have found the mechanism that begins to explain how and why ageing leads to deterioration of articular cartilage," said Scripps Institute professor Martin Lotz, an authority on arthritis who led the study with Noboru Taniguchi, senior research associate in his lab.
"Our findings demonstrate a direct link between the loss of this protein and osteoarthritis." Osteoarthritis typically begins with a disruption of the surface layer of cartilage.
The cartilage surface layer, called the superficial zone, is the most important functionally of the four layers of cartilage present in joints. In normal joints the cartilage surface is perfectly smooth, enabling joints to slide across one another without friction.
Once the cartilage of the superficial zone starts to deteriorate, though, osteoarthritis sets in, triggering an irreversible process that eventually leads to the loss of underlying layers of cartilage until bone begins to grind painfully against bone.
Osteoarthritis most commonly affects the spine, temporomandibular joints, shoulders, hands, hips and knees, said a Scripps release.
"We knew that the first phase of osteoarthritis is the destruction of cartilage in the superficial zone," said Lotz, who has spent the past five years studying the role of the single protein HMGB2 in osteoarthritis.
"Now we know that before this layer is destroyed, there is loss of the critical DNA binding protein HMGB2 and that this loss is directly related to aging."
The findings, made in collaboration with colleagues from Scripps Research, San Raffaele University in Milan, Italy, and Kagoshima University in Kagoshima, Japan, provide a promising avenue to explore the development of new osteoarthritis treatment options.
The results were published in this week's edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
An Australian researchers team have claimed that they have proved that giving premature babies
doses of an omega-3 fatty acid known as DHA can stop the development of mental retardation.
The University of Adelaide research team, which studied over 650 babies over a six-year period, said they found that giving the DHA nutrient to pre-term babies reduced the incidence of mental delay by between 40 and 50 per cent.
Babies get the extra DHA through breast milk by their mother taking a fish-oil capsule or adding it to infant formula.
Bob Gibson from the University said babies who were given the extra DHA showed remarkable results and that increased doses of DHA for premature babies should become a standard treatment around the world.
"I know that international colleagues have been very enthusiastic and have been trying to institute changes in their neonatal units," he said.
"And I think that in a year from now the standard level of DHA in infant formulas is raised three or four times," he added.
The silvery planet, Venus, following its elliptical orbit will now move closer to the Sun which will make it brighter in the night
sky.
Venus, also known as the planet of love, was at its maximum elongation on Wednesday on the day of Makar Sankranti, and now will move closer to the Sun, Science Popularisation Association of Communicators and Educators (SPACE), President Chander Bhushan Devgun said.
Elongation is an astronomical term which refers to the angle between the Sun and a planet as viewed from Earth. When a planet is visible after sunset, it is near its greatest eastern elongation. When it is visible before sunrise, it is near its greatest western elongation.
The value of the greatest elongation for Venus is between 45 and 47, he said, adding the value varies because the orbits of the planets are elliptical, rather than perfect circles.
Also, the variation can be attributed to the inconsistency in orbital inclination, that is, each planet's orbit is in a slightly different plane.
The silvery planet is "up" for more than three hours after sunset now-a-days, he added.
To view the planet of love, he said a person can just go outside after dark, face south, and take a long look. The planet can be seen through naked eyes as it is so bright that it outshines city lights and even pierces thin clouds.
In 2008, Venus did not had the greatest elongation either eastern or western. The planet instead moved from a greatest western elongation on October 26, 2007 to a greatest eastern elongation on January 14 this year
New observations of the atmosphere on Mars show fairly large amounts of methane along with water vapor in the summertime— thestrongest suggestion yet that living organisms might be producing the gas.
NASA scientists stressed that there is no direct evidence that anything living produced the methane, which could be produced by volcanic activity, could be made by live microbes, or could be left over from long-extinct life.
A report to be carried in Friday's issue of the journal Science details the observations, made using three telescopes in Hawaii. "The most compelling question relates to the origin of methane on Mars. The methane we detected is of unknown age—its origin could be ancient or perhaps recent," Michael Mumma of NASA and colleagues wrote.
The methane appears to have been produced in plumes from certain areas on Mars as temperatures warmed, they said. "Living systems produce more than 90 percent of Earth's atmospheric methane; the balance is of geochemical origin. On Mars, methane could be a signature of either origin," they added.
On Earth, methane is known as swamp gas and made by decaying plants or found in the burps, belches and other emissions of animals from termites to cattle and people. It is made up of carbon and hydrogen. "Using high-dispersion infrared spectrometers at three ground-based telescopes, we measured methane and water vapor simultaneously on Mars over several longitude intervals in (northern) early- and late-summer 2003 and near vernal equinox 2006," the scientists said.
Spectrometers can measure gases from afar by the breakdown of signals in light. Mars is Earth's neighbor, orbiting outside our own orbit around the sun. It is slightly smaller than Earth and colder, with little atmosphere. The atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide, with a little nitrogen, carbon monoxide, trace amounts of oxygen and water vapor.
WATER BELOW THE SURFACE
Water exists on Mars, and robot rovers have sampled ice from the surface. Scientists are eager to know how much more water is below the surface and whether it could support life now or in the past. No known processes produce methane on the surface of Mars, and chemical reactions with compounds on the surface could break it down.
"Thus, the presence of significant methane would require recent release from subsurface reservoirs; the ultimate origin of this methane is uncertain, but it could be either abiotic or biotic," the researchers wrote. They are not the first team to detect methane on Mars but their observations show the association both with warm temperatures and with water—which might suggest summer temperatures starts some process, either biological or geological.
Bacteria have been found on Earth that use hydrogen as energy and can turn carbon dioxide into methane in a process known as radiolysis. "These communities thrive at 2-3 km (1.2 to 1.8 miles) depth in the Witwatersrand Basin of South Africa and have been isolated from the surface (and photosynthesis) for millions of years," the researchers wrote. "It might be possible for analogous biota to survive for eons below the cryosphere boundary on Mars, where water is again liquid, radiolysis can supply energy, and carbon dioxide can provide carbon."
Rats are more attracted to liquor's smell during puberty if their mothers were given alcohol during pregnancy.
Researchers have shown that rats exposed during gestation find the smell of alcohol on another rat's breath during adolescence more attractive than animals with no prior foetal exposure.
Steven Youngentob from New York Upstate Medical University led researchers who probed social and behavioural effects of foetal ethanol exposure in adolescent and adult rats.
"The findings by Amber Eade in my lab reveal that foetal ethanol exposure influences adolescent re-exposure, in part, by promoting interactions with intoxicated peers," Youngentob said.
Foetal ethanol experience is believed to train the developing sense of smell to find ethanol odour more attractive. The authors describe how, in both rats and humans, foetal exposure changes how the odour and flavour of ethanol are perceived, said a New York Upstate release.
"Such learning may be a fundamental feature of all mammalian species because it is important (from a survival standpoint) for the pre-weanling animal to accept and be attracted to the food sources consumed by the mother," the researchers wrote.
In this study the authors found that rats unexposed to ethanol were significantly less likely to follow an intoxicated peer than those with gestational experience.
The study was published in BioMed Central's open access journal Behavioural and Brain Functions.
The Swiss Army knife, one of the hottest buys of the last century, is keeping pace with the new millennium and moving from campground to boardroom.
Manufacturer Victorinox, celebrating its 125th anniversary this year, unveiled the latest version of the ubiquitous multi-purpose tool at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.
The company has been adding high-tech features to its knives since 2004 but the latest model, the Presentation Pro, takes the trend even further by incorporating Bluetooth and fingerprint recognition technology.
Instead of a saw and a corkscrew, the Presentation Pro comes with a laser pointer and an integrated Bluetooth remote control that can be used to direct a slide show or a Powerpoint presentation.
It also has a USB flashdrive with up to 32GB of storage and a biometric sensor that grants access through fingerprint recognition.
The case remains red and the small white cross is still there but the plastic is now transparent, putting the innards of the device on display.
The Presentation Pro is not just high-tech and gives in to tradition by keeping a knife, a pair of scissors and a nail file with a screwdriver head.
But the company does offer a "plane-friendly" version of the model, the blade-free Presentation Pro Flight, which should cause no problems with airport security.
Explaining the high-tech upgrade, Victorinox North America operations president Rick Taggart said the company is "striving to provide products that are relevant to the consumers of their era."
The Presentation Pro is available from May and priced from 169.95 dollars to 329.95 dollars, depending on the memory capacity of the USB drive.
Young scientists at the Centre for Excellence in Basic Science (CBS) here have cloned a gene which is involved in processing
environmental signals and interpret them to guard the cells from any unwarranted situations.
The novel gene, namely flagellar-associated gene from green alga 'Chlamydomonas Reinhardtii', was cloned for the first time in an University environment in a record time, with minimal lab space and less ideal infrastructure, the chief investigator of the project Dr Jacinta D'Souza said.
Flagella of this alga is used for locomotion and the flagellar proteins are important for its security.
"The flagellar gene is now popularly recognised as the watchtower of a cell and loss of any ciliary protein function leads to serious diseases including cancer," she said.
The CBS scientists have name the cloned gene as CBS-1, she said. Algae are now popularly used for generating biofuels and understanding how biomotors work.
The flagella of this alga (or cilia in the case of humans) are structures involved in processing environmental signals and interpret these signals either to move the cell towards or away from the same.
The long-term aim in the CBS lab is to recognise these very proteins, clone the genes involved in the movement of biomotors so as to eventually design a functional nanomachine, D'Souza who is working with two of her Ph.D students Dolly Khona and Venkatramanan Rao, said.
CBS, is an autonomous institution funded by the Department of Atomic Energy and Univeristy of Mumbai.
Could a pill or a squirt up your nose save your marriage? Maybe, according to a researcher who is studying the chemical basis of that
most elusive of all emotions — love.
Larry Young says his ultimate quest is not a high-tech love potion but to shed light on serious conditions like autism, which affects the ability to form social attachments, by studying brain chemicals involved in emotional attachment. “Biologists may soon be able to reduce certain mental states associated with love to a biochemical chain of events,” Young, of the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University in Atlanta, wrote in the journal Nature.
His study of prairie voles has shown that a quick dose of the right hormone can drastically alter relationships. The cute rodents are a good model for human relationships. Unlike many other animals, they form lifelong pairs and raise their young together. But this behaviour is easy to change, Young says. “It’s a chemical reaction. At least in voles we know that if you take a female and place her with a male and infuse her brain with oxytocin, she will quickly bond with that male.”
Taking away her natural levels of oxytocin — a hormone involved in labor, nursing and social bonding — means she will reject a male as a mate no matter how many times she physically copulates with him.
“Experiments have shown that a nasal squirt of oxytocin enhances trust and tunes people into others’ emotions,” Young wrote. “Internet entrepreneurs are already marketing products such as Enhanced Liquid Trust, a cologne-like mixture of oxytocin and pheromones designed to boost the dating and relationship area of your life,” he added.
Young sees a potential role in fixing damaged marriages. “If we could maybe use a drug in combination with marital therapy, that may be desirable,” he said.
Young is also convinced that love does not boil down to one single hormone. Other studies have shown that differences in a gene called major histocompatibility complex, which affects the immune system, may be involved in initial sexual attraction. For males, the hormone vasopressin appears to be more important.
“I think love in humans evolved to draw us together,” Young said. Which means feelings of love likely exist in other animals. “Any mammal, when the mother has babies, they are bonded to those babies and would do anything to protect those babies. That is an ancient brain chemical that is ubiquitous, and stimulates the bond,” he said.
Reproduction: Red blood cells do not have the capacity for reproduction.
Nothing gives a columnist more satisfaction or excitement than readers coming back with critical comments, questions and clarifications. These allow him to then engage in a dialogue with them on the issues raised. This is what has happened with my recent article on creating life in the chemical laboratory (The Hindu, December 11, 2008).
First was the point about how Wohler, when he converted the inorganic molecule ammonium cyanate into the ‘organic’ molecule urea. And this synthesis led him to throw out the notion that certain molecules, termed ‘organic,’ can be made only by ‘vital forces.’
And much later, Miller and Urey showed that amino acids and even some building blocks of the ‘life’ molecule DNA are made by sparking electricity and radiation in a closed glass bulb containing water, ammonia and carbon dioxide.
Dead or lifeless
Commenting on this, a reader noted, correctly, that molecules — be they urea or DNA — are by themselves dead or lifeless.
Another perceptive reader says: “You can’t rejoice that the ‘notion’ of ‘vital forces’ has been thrown out while synthesizing urea and next wonder when ‘life itself’ will be made in the lab. You have to decide whether a molecule of urea is alive, and if not, nothing at all, yet, has been thrown out.
This brings us to the very definition of life itself. In order to call something alive, it needs to do two things.
One is, it should be capable of making more of itself, namely reproduction. And the second is that it should be able to engage in exchange of energy and materials with the environment surrounding it.
These two properties, namely reproduction and metabolism are necessary and sufficient to define a living organism. The operative phrase is ‘necessary and sufficient.’ It is this phrase that disallows the inclusion of viruses into the world of life.
A virus has the information contained within itself for reproduction, in the form of DNA or RNA. But it cannot, by itself, metabolize; it needs a ‘host’ cell for making more of itself. It has to use the machinery of the cell that it attaches itself to. And that cell better be a living one, actively transacting with the environment. Thus a virus is non-living.
Likewise are certain cells that we house and use in our living bodies. Red blood cells are an excellent example. Unlike their neighbours, the white blood cells, they do not have the capacity for reproduction. RBCs do not have the DNA molecule that is necessary for reproduction.
They are thus non-living. Just as a virus is an inert flask that contains the molecular tape necessary for reproduction, red blood cells are inert bags that contain the molecules with which energy exchange or metabolism with the surrounding environment can occur.
Get started
Let us now ask: What if we inject DNA from a virus into a red blood cells, will we now have life? The answer is “not yet.” What we have is more like a motor car, which has the engine and the fuel, but one which is parked in the garage. Just as a car engine needs to be started, the DNA-injected red cell too needs to get started.
And how to do so is the million dollar question. It is this challenge that Dr. Craig Venter is attempting to win with his laboratory-made DNA genome of the microbe M. genitalia.
It is this ‘kick start’ that we are yet to know how to do. And the one who finds a way to do so will have ‘started’ life. Once this cell is made alive, hopefully it would go on by itself with no further help from the scientist who ‘created’ it.
Another reader asked pertinently: if so, did the scientist infuse “vital force” into the dead system? A tentative answer would be: no, he simply repeated what natural forces would have done over 3.5 billion years ago on earth, when radiation or UV light or ionic currents disturbed what is described as ‘the primordial soup’ which contained material akin to the DNA-injected bag of metabolites.
Whether one wishes to call this act as vital force or something else then becomes a matter of belief. But the more immediate and engaging point is that we are quite close to creating such a life form in the laboratory.
Matters become more complex and engaging when we extrapolate such experiments to higher organisms. Bacteria and plants are fine. They do not have brains or a central nervous system; so they do not ‘think’ but are hard-wired to act and respond in defined ways, however complex, creative or even wily these may be. For centuries, we have been creating new plants by grafting and even cloning. Bonsai plants are looked at with artistic appreciation.
But when we turn to animals, which have a central nervous system and an active brain, we enter the realm of learning, decision making, self-awareness, and consciousness.
Even with some animals, we have been selection breeding cats and dogs. But when it comes to primates and humans, we become m ore anthropocentric. We stop back and ask (rightly so) whether it is ethically and morally acceptable.
