>
http://articles.cnn.com/2010-05-21/health/venter.qa_1_synthetic-chrom...
>
> CNN: Did you create new life?
>
> Venter: We created a new cell. It's alive. But we didn't create life
> from scratch.
>
> In other words they used preexisting life - and injected DNA and made
> life out of it. From life came life. No life from scratch.
So you are claiming that virus particles aren't truly alive. You
are pointing out that the genome of the virus isn't sufficient to
ensure the reproduction of the virus particle. The DNA by itself is
not alive, according to you.
Okay, this is arguable. However, it is impressive.
As you were told before: If a virus is alive, then humans have created
life from scratch.
They created complete genomes from scratch. Those fragments of DNA
that they bought from chemistry manufacturers were created from
scratch, or could have been.
The short sequences of DNA were made from monomers such as
nucleotides. These nucleotides were made from "scratch", or could have
been made from scratch. The nucleotides were assembled into short
segments with other monomers.
The scientists then took these short segments of DNA and assembled
those into the genome of the virus. The genome of the virus is all
that reproduces. The capsid and other associated proteins are used for
protection and as enzymes.
However, assembling the genome is a considerable part of the
manufacture of life. The enzymes and substrates necessary for a cell
to function are also being decoded.
My conjecture is that someone will have assembled an entire cell
from basic constituents within a few decades. I predict that they will
use some enzymes extracted from a living thing, since that is still
the easiest way to acquire these enzymes. Even if one knows how to
make such an enzyme, it is easiest to get them from a living thing.
However, the structure and composition of these enzymes will be known.
Therefore, they could be made from scratch.
Your point about making life is rather weak, since we know how to
make most of the constituents. More relevant to your point is the
following.
The procedure and environment used to make those viruses are not
"natural". That is, it is extremely improbably that the sequence of
steps that led to the manufacture of these viruses could be found on
any planet which did not already have highly evolved or designed life.
The detailed procedure required either human beings or an organism
behaviorally similar to human beings.
These viruses could not have formed by complete chance. However,
they can and were formed as a consequence of natural selection. The
probability of 500 nucleotides in the ocean jumping together
"randomly" in a precise order is effectively zero. However, the slow
polymerization and selective degradation of nucleotides is not random
in the strictest definition.
Suppose you had a bag full of balls of different sizes. Then you
select balls one at a time and but them in a vertical wrack one at a
time. The probability that they will be in the order of bigger balls
on top of smaller balls is negligible. However, take that bag, shake
it, and pour those balls one at a time. The shaking will place the
bigger balls on top due to selective processes.