Read Life's Greatest Secret Online
Authors: Matthew Cobb
Life's Greatest Secret (68 page)
http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/access/SCBBMG.pdf
.
7
. Keyes (1999b), Morange (2007a).
8
. Prusiner (1982).
9
. Hunter (1999), Prusiner and McCarty (2006). For a more nuanced view, see Morange (2007a).
10
. Prusiner (1998).
11
. Manuelidis
et al.
(2007).
12
. Supattapone and Miller (2013).
13
. Bremer
et al.
(2010).
14
. Keyes (1999b).
15
. Morange (2008).
16
. Denenberg and Rosenberg (1967).
17
. Lockyer (2014).
18
. Shama and Wegner (2014).
19
. Arai
et al.
(2009).
20
. Francis
et al.
(1999), Carey (2011).
21
. Burkeman (2010), Danchin (2013), Jablonka and Lamb (2006), Noble (2013) and Shapiro (2009) all consider that we are in the midst of a revolution. Maderspacher (2010) is not so convinced. For a point-by-point rebuttal of Noble’s views see
http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2013/08/25/famous-physiologist-embarrasses-himself-by-claiming-that-the-modern-theory-of-evolution-is-in-tatters/
22
. See
Chapter 11
.
23
. Guo
et al.
(2014), Smith
et al.
(2014).
24
. Radford
et al.
(2014).
25
. Hüdl and Basler (2012).
26
. Petruk
et al.
(2012).
27
. Carey (2011), pp. 217–19.
28
. Nelson
et al.
(2012), Mattick (2012).
29
. Lumey
et al.
(2009), Heijmans
et al.
(2008).
30
. Daxinger and Whitelaw (2012).
31
. Francis (2011).
32
. Rechavi
et al.
(2011).
33
. Heard and Martienssen (2014), Yu
et al.
(2013).
34
. Cortijo
et al.
(2014), Bond and Baulcombe (2014, 2015).
35
. Heard and Martienssen (2014).
36
. For a recent presentation of these two views, see Laland
et al.
(2014).
37
. Gayon (2006).
38
. For a fascinating exploration of Lamarck’s ideas in their historical context, and the importance of his thinking for the acceptance of the idea of evolution, see Mayr (1972).
39
. Gayon (1998).
40
. See, for example,
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/411880/a-comeback-for-lamarckian-evolution
.
41
. Li and Xie (2011).
42
. Crick (1958), p. 144.
43
. Hartl
et al.
(2011), Morange (2005b).
44
. Anonymous (1997).
45
. Crick to Temin, 3 August 1970.
http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/access/SCBBMG.pdf
. See also Strasser (2006).
46
. Marahiel (2009).
47
. Shen
et al.
(2015).
48
. Mosini (2013).
49
. Morange (2005b).
Chapter 14
1
. Gibson
et al.
(2010).
2
. For Venter’s account of this work, see Venter (2013). The existence of the code was announced here:
http://www.jcvi.org/cms/press/press-releases/full-text/article/first-self-replicating-synthetic-bacterial-cell-constructed-by-j-craig-venter-institute-researcher/
. For a clear explanation of the code, and details of how it was cracked, see
https://genomevolution.org/wiki/index.php/Mycoplasma_mycoides_JCVI-syn1.0_Decoded
.
3
.
New York Times,
18 November 2013.
4
. For an excellent overview of all aspects of biotechnology, which covers the subject in far more detail than space allows here, see Rutherford (2013).
5
. Readers of a certain age may recall the satirical 1983 hit song by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark entitled ‘Genetic engineering’ (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OddgsPyCJmU
). According to the
Oxford English Dictionary,
‘biotechnology’ was first used in 1921, by the US Department of Agriculture.
6
. Lazaris
et al.
(2002);
The Guardian,
14 January 2012; Rutherford (2013).
7
. Source: USDA Economic Research Service.
http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/adoption-of-genetically-engineered-crops-in-the-us.aspx
.
8
. Relyea (2012), Annett
et al.
(2014).
9
. Moran and Jarvik (2010), Boto (2014).
10
. Remigi
et al.
(2014).
11
. Kim
et al.
(2014).
12
. Goldman
et al.
(2013). In the 1980s, a series of sequences were introduced into
E. coli
bacteria that encoded simple Venus-like icons as part of an art project called Microvenus (Davis, 1996).
13
. Church
et al.
(2012);
The New Yorker,
24 November 2014.
14
. Farzadfard and Lu (2014).
15
. Schneider’s web site is delightfully retro:
http://users.fred.net/tds/leftdna/
.
16
. Marvin
et al.
(1961), van Dam and Levitt (2000).
17
. Wang
et al.
(1979), Morange (2007b).
18
. Morange (2007b).
19
. Rich (2004). Bizarro is the name of Superman’s alter ego, a fractured mirror image for whom all of Superman’s moral code is reversed.
20
.
New York Times,
29 June 1999; Rich and Zhang (2003).
21
. Du
et al.
(2013).
22
. Rich
et al.
(1961).
23
. Safaee
et al.
(2013).
24
. Pinheiro
et al.
(2012).
25
. Joyce (2012a, b).
26
. Wolfe-Simon
et al.
(2011). The article was accompanied by a series of critical comments and an explanation from the editor of
Science,
Bruce Alberts.
27
. Reaves
et al.
(2012), Erb
et al.
(2012).
28
. Cleland and Copley (2005), Wolfe-Simon
et al.
(2009). The title of the Wolfe-Simon
et al.
article is ‘Did nature also choose arsenic?’, thereby inadvertently extending to scientific articles Betteridge’s law of headlines, which states that ‘Any headline which ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no.’
29
. Davies
et al.
(2009), Toomey (2013).
30
. Davis and Chin (2013). For a description of other approaches, see Johnson
et al.
(2010).
31
. Switzer
et al.
(1989), Piccirilli
et al.
(1990).
32
. Yang
et al.
(2011).
33
. For example, the drug acyclovir – O’Brien and Campoli-Richards (1989).
34
. Malyshev
et al.
(2014).
35
. Jackson
et al.
(1972).
36
. Berg
et al.
(1974).
37
. Berg
et al.
(1975), Berg (2008). See also Morange (1998), Rasmussen (2014), Rutherford (2013) and above all Wright (1994). Some researchers had already begun to circumvent the voluntary moratorium, such was the pressure to make use of these new techniques (Comfort, 2014; Rasmussen, 2014).
38
. Watanabe
et al.
(2014).
39
.
The Guardian,
11 June 2014. For an online discussion of this experiment, with useful points on both sides, see
http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2014/06/12/mad-scientists-or-is-there-any-justification-for-trying-to-recreate-a-deadly-virus/
.
40
.
http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2014/10/researchers-rail-against-moratorium-risky-virus-experiments
.
41
. Friedmann and Roblin (1972).
42
. Mavilio (2012).
43
. ‘Gene therapy’s big comeback’,
Forbes Magazine,
14 April 2014.
44
. Jinek
et al.
(2012). This publication was followed weeks later by a similar announcement from a group based in France, Lithuania and the US (Gasiunas
et al.,
2012).
45
. Cong
et al.
(2013), Mali
et al.
(2013).
46
.
New York Times,
4 March 2014. For a more technical summary, see Hsu
et al.
(2014).
47
.
The Independent,
7 November 2013.
48
. Sheridan (2014),
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/526726/broad-institute-gets-patent-on-revolutionary-gene-editing-method
.
49
. O’Connell
et al.
(2014).
50
. Esvelt
et al.
(2014).
51
. Oye
et al.
(2014).
52
. Mandel
et al.
(2015), Rover
et al.
(2015).
53
. Berg (2008), pp. 290–1.
Chapter 15
1
. Miller (1953), Bada and Lazcano (2000).
2
. Elsila
et al.
(2009). In 2008, after Miller’s death, researchers examined vials left over from a similar experiment he had carried out in the 1950s. Using modern techniques, they discovered that the levels of amino acids produced by the experiment were even higher than those originally reported (Johnson
et al.,
2008).
3
. Lane and Martin (2012), Martin
et al.
(2014). See also Koonin and Martin (2005), Fellermann and Solé (2007).
4
. Baaske
et al.
(2007).
5
. For a summary of molecular evidence supporting this view, see Di Giulio (2013a).
6
. Crick (1981), pp. 15–16.
Nature
mischievously asked the Bishop of Birmingham to review the book; the Bishop countered Crick’s directed panspermia hypothesis by outlining the evidence for a purely terrestrial origin of life, while inevitably leaving the door open for ‘divine providence’, for which there is arguably even less evidence than for space aliens (Montefiore, 1982).
7
. See shCherbak and Makukov (2013) for a suggestion that the genetic code contains an intelligent signature.
8
. Gilbert (1986).
9
. Joyce (2002), Paul and Joyce (2004), Robertson and Joyce (2012).
10
. Pross (2012), p. 63.
11
. A handful of scientists are not convinced there was such a thing as the RNA world. See, for example, Caetano-Anollés and Seufferheld (2013).
12
. Hotchkiss (1995). This brilliant insight had little consequence.
13
. Powner
et al.
(2009). However, as Adam Rutherford points out, John Sutherland’s research on the spontaneous synthesis of RNA bases found that the yield of uracil was increased in the presence of ultraviolet radiation, hinting that the synthesis of early RNA may have taken place close to the surface (Rutherford, 2013, p. 96).
14
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