All life on Earth is based on a structure which holds 4 "bytes" of information in the DNA (represented by the letters G, T, C and A). While the letters have no importance whatsoever - and I admit I have no idea what they mean - the fact that they are only and only 4, is very important. Every DNA of every life form on Earth is built this way. That's what we call "life".
According to an article published today, in Science Alert, scientists created a semi-synthetic form of life with a DNA code holding 6 bytes of information. There are 2 more letters describing this new code, X and Y (again, I have no idea what they mean, but the fact that they exist is important).
For the first time in the history of human kind we created a life form which is fundamentally different from us. And when I say 'us" I refer to every life form on Earth. It's a bit scary. It means that this new DNA can act differently and can learn new ways to adapt to reality. It's literally an alien life form.
For those of you interested in the details, I invite you to read the article.
For those interested in just a rough translation of the meaning I will just add that this new life form can hold more information in its structure. If we would compare this bacteria they made (it's a version of E coli bacteria) with a computer, we could say that it has literally more storage space, like a bigger HDD and RAM.
The words "creating an enhanced human being" just got real. The time to market for such a technology may be longer than we think, probably one generation, but the fact that this is possible is absolutely stunning.
image source - Pixabay
I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.
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