• Question: If the whole world could come together, could we create a single fly?

    Asked by Jasmin to Heather, Helen, Hugh, Jane, Julian on 11 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Julian Onions

      Julian Onions answered on 11 Nov 2014:

      Not so far. There is a biologist Craig Ventner who has managed to make a bacteria, my making his own DNA to code for it, and it even includes and http: URL in the DNA code, and a copyright.
      However he cheated a bit, in that he took the DNA out of an existing bacterium and replaced it with his custom made DNA.
      Still – thats the nearest we’ve got to making a fly, which contains probably a million different cells. So some work to do!

    • Photo: Helen Johnson

      Helen Johnson answered on 11 Nov 2014:

      … We could try? (Sorry, going for a little rhyme there)
      Agreed with Julian, it would be an incredibly difficult task to create a fly, or even bacteria, from scratch. Cloning is another matter though.

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