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Re:How Biologists Are Creating Life-Like Cells from Scratch by rumcajz on Friday November 09, 2018 @09:46AM (#18414696)
> And as the engineers of synthetic life, she and her colleagues can easily incorporate controls or a kill switch that renders the cells harmless.

That's a bold claim given how evolution routes around failures.

Re:How Biologists Are Creating Life-Like Cells from Scratch by HillaryBriss on Friday November 09, 2018 @10:20AM (#18415003)
yeah. that line made me laugh. it's the kind of thing i expect to see in a low-grade sci-fi horror screenplay.

Mary: "But to make all these pseudo-cells reproduce at room temperature, we had to mimic properties of the polio, smallpox, and ebola viruses, professor! What if it gets out of control?!"

Professor Devin Daylooded: "Don't worry, Mary Goodsave. You may be a super-intelligent grad student who sees things I don't, but I will ignore your cautionary message which even the audience understands because I can easily incorporate controls or a kill switch that renders the cells harmless."