Recently, I saw an open source project named OpenWorm, which aims to build the first comprehensive computational model of the Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans), a microscopic roundworm, which has around a thousand cells .
On the first glimpse, I was misunderstanding it, I was though some scientists are trying to create a live roundworm, not simplify just clone one from some kind of zygote, but build a totally new one using organic materials or using metal with chips. As soon as I got the spark in my mind, I feeling doubt on it: is this become true that people can finally build a live organism? Of course, it turns out that only a simulation of roundworm in silico— performed on computer or via computer simulation.
However, an interesting question pervade in my mind then: Can we be the creator now? If we cannot, how long we still need to wait? Since 1996, the first cloned sheep, Dolly (http://library.thinkquest.org/C0122429/history/1996.htm; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolly_%28sheep%29), more and more cloning projects are presented in the next ~20 years, like cat, dog and pig (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_animals_that_have_been_cloned). And more recently, it was reported that South Korean and Russian scientists are trying to recreate a woolly mammoth (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/9139976/South-Korean-and-Russian-scientists-bid-to-clone-mammoth.html). Based on these reality or news, maybe one day, we can see Tyrannosaurus Rex running on the ground of a small island just like the shot in the movie Jurassic Park.
It truly is intriguing to think that humans have managed to clone an entire animal, like in Dolly’s case. However, the thought that we put so much effort into recreating living beings, especially those that no longer exist, is somewhat disconcerting.
On one side, the ability to recreate and clone animals could work absolute wonders. Not only for people specifically, but also for the benefit of the world as a whole. For example, we are well aware of the importance of bees in the ultimate survival of our planet, yet us as humans have killed them off both directly and indirectly. This will to a huge detriment in our future. However, it could be possible to create more bees using cloning technology and if produced on a large scale, could possibly solve this problem. This is just one example, but there are many more examples where it could be undoubtedly beneficial.
Yet, as human being, we always seem to assume that we control everything. We have no idea how these cloned animals or ‘synthetic’ beings will react if they were to breed or exist in larger numbers in the real world. But more significantly is that it just seems unnatural to ‘play God’ with the rest of the world. There are still so many things we don’t understand in the natural world yet we meddle in these types of experiments that have unforeseen and even possibly catastrophic results.
Is it our place to create life? To change what has happened and to alter history by bringing back what no longer exists?