Comments on: Gen·e·sis: The Scientific Quest for Life’s Origin by Robert M. Hazen http://calitreview.com/193 Book reviews, essays, and author interviews. Thu, 18 Mar 2010 15:39:22 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: David Loftus http://calitreview.com/193/comment-page-1#comment-805 David Loftus Fri, 15 Jun 2007 19:15:51 +0000 http://calitreview.com//2007/05/27/gen%c2%b7e%c2%b7sis-the-scientific-quest-for-life%e2%80%99s-origin-by-robert-m-hazen/#comment-805 As to your first question, the answer is surely no, because of the prohibitive cost and the lack of an answer for what would justify it. Your second question is more intriguing; to my mind, there's at least one procedural reason (you should learn the "rules" or "guidelines" before you start to monkey with something), and one possibly ethical or even practical one: going beyond mere replication runs the risk a good chunk of the delicately-balanced ecosystem, if not all of it, in a similar way to how the introduction of new species to a closed system like Guam (brown tree snakes) or Australia (don't jackrabbits come under this heading?) wreaks havoc on the local flora and fauna. As to your first question, the answer is surely no, because of the prohibitive cost and the lack of an answer for what would justify it. Your second question is more intriguing; to my mind, there’s at least one procedural reason (you should learn the “rules” or “guidelines” before you start to monkey with something), and one possibly ethical or even practical one: going beyond mere replication runs the risk a good chunk of the delicately-balanced ecosystem, if not all of it, in a similar way to how the introduction of new species to a closed system like Guam (brown tree snakes) or Australia (don’t jackrabbits come under this heading?) wreaks havoc on the local flora and fauna.

]]> By: Abhinav http://calitreview.com/193/comment-page-1#comment-804 Abhinav Fri, 15 Jun 2007 19:15:02 +0000 http://calitreview.com//2007/05/27/gen%c2%b7e%c2%b7sis-the-scientific-quest-for-life%e2%80%99s-origin-by-robert-m-hazen/#comment-804 Hi, Have we ever tried genetic DNA match between what all the organism have(including cells). Perhaps a common trait can give us a better insight. Also why do we replicate ie. try to preserve an information (DNA) in the first place ? Abhinav Hi,

Have we ever tried genetic DNA match between what all the organism have(including cells). Perhaps a common trait can give us a better insight.
Also why do we replicate ie. try to preserve an information (DNA) in the first place ?

Abhinav

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