Can Scientist create original species or is it impossible and why?

Answer 1

Scientists have demonstrated speciation in controlled settings.

If you mean that scientists will be able to design new species from scratch, well, that's incredibly hard to do unless you count creating the elements of life (which can be and has been done). It's easier to follow the way species form in nature and let evolution take its course.


By the way, it's relatively easy to make new strains of unicellular organisms, complete with vastly different properties. I've done it dozens of times, as has anyone who has ever been involved with bioengineering.

I have colleagues who do funny things with mice.

Answer 2

There is a common species of bacteria called E. coli. The chromosome of E. coli is circular and is called a plasmid. It is easy to grow trillions of these bacteria in a laboratory fermentation tank.

Diabetics require the hormone insulin because their own pancreas fails to provide enough to properly regulate their blood sugar level. The insulin molecule is a protein that is created inside a living cell by transcribing the pattern of nucleotides along a length of DNA using another molecule called RNA. A cell uses the RNA as a template to assemble 20 different types of amino acid in the correct sequence to create the insulin molecule.

In a pharmaceutical research laboratory where I worked, we created an artificial piece of DNA about 750 nucleotides long, using a machine called an oligonucleotide synthesizer (aka, "gene machine"). We used exactly the same sequence of nucleotides a normally functioning pancreas uses to manufacture human insulin. Using special restriction enzymes, we cut E. coli plasmids at a particular place and inserted the piece of artificial DNA. Then trillions of the modified bacteria were cultured and, as part of their living metabolism, they manufacture human insulin -- the exact same molecule. Now diabetics no longer have to rotate between pork, beef, and horse insulin to avoid becoming allergic to the very medicine they require. Synthetic human insulin works much, much better.

The bottom line is that the modified bacteria is no longer E. coli. It's a completely new species, with its own unique genetics and was registered with the US Patent Office as a new life form. Not only have scientists created original species, but it was done more than twenty years ago, using technology that's obsolete by today's standards. (The "gene machine" was controlled by an S-100 microcomputer that ran at 8 MHz and had 64k of RAM. It had two 8" floppy drives. The software was written using a compiled form of BASIC.)

Answer 3

Scientists can, or will soon be able to, create original species. Haven't you heard about genetic engineering? Scientists have created new kinds of bacteria, since their lifespans are short and thus evolution works faster on that level. But in trying to create new species of larger organisms such as animals, modifying genes in ways that will have positive changes is harder. That is why evolution takes so long - it proceeds by trial and error, but errors with positive effects are beneficial and thus are selected for.

Answer 4

This will require decades if not centuries of research and much better computers. Genomes are so infinitely complicated we can barely comprehend how they work and only working on peice-meal bits at a time, usually working on ones related to disease. At this point we can change breeds by hybridizing or eliminating a gene but not a species. Our abilities at this point are like a word document. We can erase bits of it, or cut-and-paste it, but we can't make new words or new documents. We will have AIDs beat long before we can make new species.

Answer 5

Scientists HAVE created basic, self-replicating life in the lab. The DNA is down to absolutely the most basic required. I'm not a biologist and I don't have the news souce. But I dare you to ask this in the Biology section.

Answer 6

Based on the biological species concept (that a species of is defined by reproductive incompatibility)?

Sure, easily. You might not see it and think it looks like a totally unique species, but it would meet the definition of a "new" species.

Answer 7

Not from scratch. New species come from pre-existing species. It's not really creation. A couple of species that are rather artificial:

corn
true-breeding triticale

Answer 8

I suspect that it is impossible today. But would you like to bet on it in 100 or 200 years? At the rate that we are learning about genetics I'm sure it will be done very soon.

Answer 9

Scientist have created origional species. Some are even patiented.

Answer 10

I really think that people today simply over estimate the ability of science and see it as something omnipotent which it can never be.