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Artificial cells made of metal


Rusakov

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http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20906-lifelike-cells-are-made-of-metal.html

Interesting article. A scientist has created "cells" of metal in the lab and considers selectively breeding them and even adding a DNA analogue. Cool stuff if I say so myself. Also, I put this here instead of the lounge because this topic is ripe for debate.

Thoughts?

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It's going to be a very hard project for them to construct a non carbon cell. Life inside of the cell is very complex and even beyond the scope of our minds. I caught interest in reading this quote: "I am 100 per cent positive that we can get evolution to work outside organic biology," says Lee Cronin

Very interesting theory that life involved from non carbonated forms. I do have objections to that theory.

Watch this video clip 'The Inner Life of the Cell'. This could be a quick counter point.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mszlckmc4Hw

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No, it won't work. Your cell membrane is composed of poshpolipides which are semi periable. this allows for water and specific proteins( and other junk) to leave and enter the cell. A metal Cell couldn't preform in the same way. It also lack the ability to reprouduce or strech and move which is importent to singular cellular life. long sotry short, this either is a fake source or this guy has no idea what he is doing.

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Ahh science! how amazing you are... thank you for finding this loved reading through it.

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Yeah, scientists will never be able to reconstruct a cell, and if they "do" it either won't work or it will not work very well.

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That's an interesting article I think.

Of course, no DNA-like structure to overseer the "life" of these metallic bubbles and because of that, no dynamism in the structure. All the "life-like" properties are static, inherent to the compound, something quite different from the cell membranes that mainly rely on dynamic modifications around it.

The fluidity of the metallic membrane is not specified either. It is shown as kinda flexible, but cells need their intra/trans-structures (i.e proteins) to move fast and easily inside the main lipidic substrate.

As long as what he finds get its properties from its only structure, he'll only have new surface coatings or filters (something very interesting already though), but certainly not Life or such.

Life thingies aside, this is some impressive piece of chemistry!

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