UK Scientist Inches Closer To Living Metal

[CrawlingPastaHellion]

I'm not entirely sure how they are planning on making said "metallic cells" self-replicate without a carrier of genetic information, similar to our own DNA.

Also, if they're handpicking the strongest species it isn't Darwinism, strictly speaking. The environment should be the the deciding factor in this case, not a sentient being.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

But you know what did happen when a bunch of scientists were just given complete free reign to dick around with a technology they didn't fully understand for no more reason than "because they could"?

Chernobyl happened.

My jaw actually dropped from the stupidity of that comment. Please enlighten me what you think caused the Chernobyl disaster. I could use a laugh.

Alright then, since you asked nicely (/sarcasm)

A group of people working on the power plants reactor were ordered by their superiors to basically push the core to its absolute limits, literally just to see what happened and potential risks be damned. Result, the core went critical and blew up in their faces, killing many people and still affecting their children and grandchildren to this day, all because somebody somewhere decided to go all "FOR SCIENCE" without thinking about what he was doing.

 

[DarkRyter]

Sweet, we're makin Phyrexians.

 

[kommando367]

One step closer to Gilgamesh armor

 

[Darks63]

wouldn't they need better nano-tech in order to make a t-1000?

 

[Genericjim101]

I'm not entirely sure how they are planning on making said "metallic cells" self-replicate without a carrier of genetic information, similar to our own DNA.

Also, if they're handpicking the strongest species it isn't Darwinism, strictly speaking. The environment should be the the deciding factor in this case, not a sentient being.

So are you saying that a creator would be picking the strongest species? : D

 

[noobium]

I call dibs on being the first person to get Wolverine claw implants when they perfect this organic metal stuff

 

[vallorn]

heres hoping this ends up like JC Denton's Nano-Augs.

 

[Fujor]

I hat to be that guy but... How can this possibly benefit us? Is it really a good idea?

Because its interesting?

Really that is all the justification you need to do something.

Nnyahh... I'm not so sure.

I love science (even though I'm not particularly good at it), and there are few things I despise more than unnecessary scaremongering about science, especially when people use the 'Frankenstein' comparison (because for one thing, Frankenstein never actually happened).

But you know what did happen when a bunch of scientists were just given complete free reign to dick around with a technology they didn't fully understand for no more reason than "because they could"?

Chernobyl happened.

Like I said, I love science. But I also acknowledge that science with no restraints and no real point could be just as bad as no science at all.

Trolling perhaps?

Or do you genuinely fear progress.

also im pretty sure Chernobyls experiments prior to meltdown were quite important safety wise.

 

[MarsProbe]

Good to hear someone from my fair city is actually doing something useful with their time!

See, we're not all just about getting plastered and trying to get a traffic cone on the head of a statue every weekend. Enough progress in this field and we may be able to get the living metal organisms to do it for us.

I'm sure the good folks (and AIs) at Aperture would approve of this research. And that really, is all we need.

 

[CrawlingPastaHellion]

I'm not entirely sure how they are planning on making said "metallic cells" self-replicate without a carrier of genetic information, similar to our own DNA.

Also, if they're handpicking the strongest species it isn't Darwinism, strictly speaking. The environment should be the the deciding factor in this case, not a sentient being.

So are you saying that a creator would be picking the strongest species? : D

Ignore my second sentence: I should have looked up the actual dictionary definition of "to cull" first. That and I obviously took "The goal, he claims, is to cull the weak iCHELLs, leaving only the strongest, fittest examples of metallic life." out of context.

That's what being human and having sleep deprivation for the past few days does to your ability to reason clearly.

 

[Navvan]

But you know what did happen when a bunch of scientists were just given complete free reign to dick around with a technology they didn't fully understand for no more reason than "because they could"?

Chernobyl happened.

My jaw actually dropped from the stupidity of that comment. Please enlighten me what you think caused the Chernobyl disaster. I could use a laugh.

Alright then, since you asked nicely (/sarcasm)

A group of people working on the power plants reactor were ordered by their superiors to basically push the core to its absolute limits, literally just to see what happened and potential risks be damned. Result, the core went critical and blew up in their faces, killing many people and still affecting their children and grandchildren to this day, all because somebody somewhere decided to go all "FOR SCIENCE" without thinking about what he was doing.

That is almost right. They were testing a new method to bridge a gap between a cut in regular power and emergency power in case of an emergency. Ironically the test was to try and improve safety. So it wasn't exactly MORE POWER FOR SCIENCE LOlOLL1!1!! like your post suggests. They did not push the core to its limits by intent of the experiment. Yes the core went critical due to the experiment being screwed up, and yes the experiment itself was questionable as it wasn't properly tested before hand. It was theoretically a sound idea however.

Also even in your statement you acknowledge they were ordered by their superiors. The workers themselves did not do it "FOR SCIENCE" they were ordered to, and while that doesn't absolve them of all fault it does mean the primary responsibility rests on administration. It likely wasn't even the idea of anyone who ran the experiment. Secondly while a Nuclear Engineer will have extensive training in science and a deep understanding of nuclear physics, they are not actually Scientists unless they are actively developing new knowledge.

 

[Fujor]

But you know what did happen when a bunch of scientists were just given complete free reign to dick around with a technology they didn't fully understand for no more reason than "because they could"?

Chernobyl happened.

My jaw actually dropped from the stupidity of that comment. Please enlighten me what you think caused the Chernobyl disaster. I could use a laugh.

Alright then, since you asked nicely (/sarcasm)

A group of people working on the power plants reactor were ordered by their superiors to basically push the core to its absolute limits, literally just to see what happened and potential risks be damned. Result, the core went critical and blew up in their faces, killing many people and still affecting their children and grandchildren to this day, all because somebody somewhere decided to go all "FOR SCIENCE" without thinking about what he was doing.

no....no....just no.

you're so wrong on this.

 

[arealperson]

But you know what did happen when a bunch of scientists were just given complete free reign to dick around with a technology they didn't fully understand for no more reason than "because they could"?

Chernobyl happened.

My jaw actually dropped from the stupidity of that comment. Please enlighten me what you think caused the Chernobyl disaster. I could use a laugh.

Alright then, since you asked nicely (/sarcasm)

A group of people working on the power plants reactor were ordered by their superiors to basically push the core to its absolute limits, literally just to see what happened and potential risks be damned. Result, the core went critical and blew up in their faces, killing many people and still affecting their children and grandchildren to this day, all because somebody somewhere decided to go all "FOR SCIENCE" without thinking about what he was doing.

This isn't exactly true. They were doing a routine maintenance check successive test on new safety equipment, "FOR SAFETY", but they had poorly measured the failsafes, including most of all, the scheduling. They did the test under a night crew (because of less power demand) with few senior staff on hand. If they had staffed the night crew properly, or simply scheduled it during postponed it to the day (scheduling a brown out perhaps), it likely never would have happened.

 

[Braedan]

I'm sure this is fantastic, but is stopped reading IMMEDIATELY when I heard he named it iCHELLs.

 

[CrawlingPastaHellion]

Chernobyl disaster happened in the days of "Perestroika". Communistic soviets going capitalistic russians (they didn't know that at the time) couldn't care less about some nuclear reactor in the Ukraine. They had two decades of Brezhnev stagnation behind their backs, as a result the infrastructure suffered greatly.

Chernobyl was no product of an ambitious experiment, but rather a product of negligence.

 

[Sion_Barzahd]

This is the second Scottish attempt to create living metal; the first resulted in this:

Spoiler: *Spoiler*

What do you mean 'attempt'.

Irn-Bru was a fucking success!

A tasty, tasty success!


OT: Interesting, I wonder what kind of things this could be used for.

Now i really want a can of irn-bru..

This sounds both awesome and a bit spooky. I mean what if these metals evolve to giant steel beasts?! there aren't enough magnets to fend them off!

 

[Vigormortis]

I hat to be that guy but... How can this possibly benefit us? Is it really a good idea?

Because its interesting?

Really that is all the justification you need to do something.

Nnyahh... I'm not so sure.

I love science (even though I'm not particularly good at it), and there are few things I despise more than unnecessary scaremongering about science, especially when people use the 'Frankenstein' comparison (because for one thing, Frankenstein never actually happened).

But you know what did happen when a bunch of scientists were just given complete free reign to dick around with a technology they didn't fully understand for no more reason than "because they could"?

Chernobyl happened.

Like I said, I love science. But I also acknowledge that science with no restraints and no real point could be just as bad as no science at all.

Um....Chernobyl wasn't "science run-amok". It was a failure in the safety features for the power-plant. This happened because of carelessness and cheap, corner-cutting construction procedures.

We had a pretty firm grasp on how to split the atom and harness the power therein before Chernobyl blew. You'd be better served using, say, the accidental creation of one of the most lethal strains of smallpox as an example. There were attempts to study specific attributes of the virus, by strengthening those attributes in each strain, that ended up, in one case, creating a strain of the virus far more lethal than any that were naturally occurring.

As for the topic at hand, I'd hesitate to call this latest invention "living metal". From the sound of it, it may exhibit some of the attributes seen in biological cells, but I wouldn't say they're alive.

That said, the concept of "living metal" has a lot of beneficial (and detrimental) possibilities for humanity.

Besides proving the tenacity of life and showing the possibility of life existing outside the realm of carbon-based structures, it could mean a huge leap forward in computing and medical technology.

Think about it, living super computers that have thousands even millions of times the computing power of anything we can build with today's tech, yet will fit in an average size desktop case. Or, living cybernetic implants used to repair or augment someones damaged or missing organs or limbs. Just give the mass of living cells the proper instruction path and bam, they just grow a limb for the person or start repairing damaged areas of the brain.

Now, there's also the possibility the tech can go wrong. As is true for all technology when misused. Like say the world being covered in the famous "grey goo". (look it up) But, the potential benefits for this kind of technology would far out-weigh the slight potential for risks. This is, of course, assuming this living metal technology even goes anywhere. Either way, my interest is piqued.

 

[Vigormortis]

Sweet, we're makin Phyrexians.

Spooky. Not the Phyrexian bit but rather that I wasn't the only one to think of that too.

 

[StraightToHeck]

I will be extremely dissapointed if we do not breed a new race of Transformers in my lifetime