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#Redirect [[Synthetic biology#Synthetic life]]
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'''Synthetic life''' is [[artificial life]] created from non-living ([[abiotic]]) substances. It belongs to the discipline of [[synthetic biology]]. It is usually distinguished from mechanical life that usually belongs to the discipline of [[robotics]].
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== Synthetic biochemical life ==
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Synthetic life is [[artificial life]] created ''[[in vitro]]'' from [[biochemical]]s and their component materials as opposed to the normally implied ''[[in silico]]'' when using the broader term "alife".

W. Wayt Gibbs suggests that synthetic life has three major goals: "One, learn about life by building it, rather than by tearing it apart. Two, make genetic engineering worthy of its name--a discipline that continuously improves by standardizing its previous creations and recombining them to make new and more sophisticated systems. And three, stretch the boundaries of life and of machines until the two overlap to yield truly programmable organisms."<ref>{{Cite journal | author = W. Wayte Gibbs | title = Synthetic Life | journal = Scientific American | url=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=synthetic-life|date = May 2004}}</ref>

Synthetic life experiments attempt to either probe the origins of life, study some of the properties of life, or more ambitiously to recreate life from non-alive ([[abiotic]]) substances. An example of synthetic life might be an attempt to create self-replicating, self-perpetuating ([[autocatalysis|autocatalytic]]) [[chemical reaction]]s to simulate possible origins for life.
Researchers involved feel that the creation of true synthetic biochemical life is relatively close and cheap, and perhaps easier than the effort needed to place man on the Moon.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3214/01.html |title=NOVA: Artificial life|accessdate=2007-01-19}}</ref>

One way to create a new organism is to just replace the genome in an existing, natural cell with a different genome created by [[gene synthesis]]. This was first achieved with the creation of [[Synthia]] in 2010.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Gibson DG, Glass JI, Lartigue C, ''et al.'' |title=Creation of a Bacterial Cell Controlled by a Chemically Synthesized Genome |journal=Science |volume= 329|issue= 5987|pages= 52–6|year=2010 |month=May |pmid=20488990 |doi=10.1126/science.1190719}}</ref>


== See also ==
* Artificial related
** [[Artificial brain]]
** [[Artificial life]]
** [[Simulated reality]]
* Biology relates
** [[Genetically modified organism]]
** [[Non-cellular life]]
** [[Nucleic acid analogues]]
** [[Synthetic biology]]
** [[Systems biology]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
*[http://www.che.caltech.edu/groups/fha/SyntheticLife.html Synthetic Life]
*[http://patentvector.com/?p=21.html Prelude to Synthetic Life Forms]
*[http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/church_venter09/church_venter09_index.html A short course on synthetic genomics. Edge Master Class 2009]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHIocNOHd7A Craig Venter unveils "synthetic life"] Ted talks (Youtube)

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[[Category:Synthetic biology]]
[[Category:Genetics]]

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Latest revision as of 15:11, 1 May 2017