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Author
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Topic: Is understanding the programming of life beyond human capability?
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nobody
Member
Member # 145
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posted 02. July 2003 14:50
This is not an idle question. I think it could be impossible for humans to decipher God's programming of life. Right now it is. However the future might change that, if Leroy Hood gets his way. He wants to try something much more difficult than the HGP!
quote:
Beyond the Genome
The next goal of DNA research makes the breakthroughs of the past few years look like high school biology. Some even say it's impossible -- which is one reason Lee Hood is determined to go for it.
By Erick Schonfeld, July 2003 Issue
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Imagine multiplying the spidery networks on Hood's laptop by 30,000 genes and perhaps 300,000 proteins, and you begin to grasp what Hood is proposing: the most audacious biology experiment ever attempted. "This is orders of magnitude more ambitious than the Human Genome Project," says Michael Phelps, director of UCLA's Center for Molecular Medicine.
That may be putting it mildly. Realizing Hood's vision will require as-yet-uninvented scientific instruments throwing off unimaginable amounts of data. That data will have to be analyzed by as-yet-unwritten software. Some skeptics point out that the project could very well demand more computing power than exists on the planet.
The rest of this fascinating article is here:
http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/0,1640,50106,00.html
Now that the Human Genome Project has exposed the mostly mistaken idea of "one gene, one drug" it will be extremely interesting to watch any progress that can be made towards truly understanding the programming of life. As Craig Venter said:
quote:
"The drug industry has been saying 'one gene, one patent, one drug'. But the uses for this approach can be counted on fingers."
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,41749,00.html
The success of this massive project will depend on funding. I've read that about $3,000,000,000.00 was spent on the HGP. Even with the tremendous increase in computer performance I still believe it will take an enormous amount of money to tackle a challenge of this size.
Whatever happens, it will be fun to watch.
[ 02. July 2003, 14:51: Message edited by: nobody ]
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Moderator
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Member # 1
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posted 02. July 2003 15:50
nobody, this is not sufficient as the start of a thread. You should know this by now.
Maybe, just maybe, this would be something to discuss in the literature review. You'll have to give it a shot and see what the Moderator over there thinks.
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