Scientists take first step towards creating 'inorganic life'

[Bosonic]

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at the University of Glasgow say they have taken their first tentative steps towards creating 'life' from inorganic chemicals potentially defining the new area of 'inorganic biology'.

Professor Lee Cronin, Gardiner Chair of Chemistry in the College of Science and Engineering, and his team have demonstrated a new way of making inorganic-chemical-cells or iCHELLS.

Prof Cronin said: “All life on earth is based on organic biology (i.e. carbon in the form of amino acids, nucleotides, and sugars etc) but the inorganic world is considered to be inanimate.

“What we are trying do is create self-replicating, evolving inorganic cells that would essentially be alive. You could call it inorganic biology.”

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-09-scientists-inorganic-life.html

[midnight]

1. Can't wait to see how this evolves...

[The Traveler]

2. This could be very exciting

and a very bad idea ... if yer aligned with "organic" life, that is.

Ironic that on a planet with abundant (but diminishing) life forms, we seek to re-invent life while systematically destroying it to produce cash. It seems madness to me.

Trav

[DetlefK]

3. Silicium-based life-forms?

Silicium is very similar to carbon, so a lot of the biochemistry would also be similar.

As silicium reacts far slower in chemical reactions, silicum-based life-forms would grow/heal slower than carbon-based life, but on the other side that means, they would also live much longer.

[Odin2005]

4. Cool!