UK Scientist Inches Closer To Living Metal

[dickywebster]

If they create necrons, it will an awesome end of the world :3

DAMMIT NINJAD! Still posting this.

SNIP

Totally called it.

Living metal sounds cool as hell though. Want some. Make some of these. They rock. Science in the media is pretty warped though. Im sure this isnt even accurately portrayed in the slightest.

CAPTCHA: the acdenti, thats what it will be when we actually make necrons >.>

Well maybe not proper necrons, doubt we could make a gauss flayer and live, but itd be as close as we could get.
And science might be misshown in the news, but we're actually a lot closer to massive breakthroughs than people think, its just that no one will put in the money as it isnt profitable.
But if get nuked by a monolith, i will die happy! ^^

The guys name is Lee Cronin that's pretty close to Necron anyway...

It does have a necron ring to it, uh oh

 

[dickywebster]

If they create necrons, it will an awesome end of the world :3

Not for us. We would either be killed or turned into zombie like creatures.

OT: And then the metal being will rise up, AND METAL SLIMES SHALL WALK THE EARTH!

Just as long as those metal slimes arent kings then i wont mind, or maybe we will get necron slimes!

 

[The Forces of Chaos]

Bah! Warp take you necrons. Living metal is cool though.

 

[Buizel91]

Next step:
Transformers!!!

Bags on Sideswipe...xD Can we turn our moon to Cybertron to? =3

OT: Well fuck me sideways...this should be interesting...

A Scottish Scientist which has access to living metal...What could POSSIBLY go wrong xD

Hehe i kid, Should be interesting to see what this stuff will be used for =3

 

[DRTJR]

Nest step MAKE STARSCREAM

 

[chadachada123]

Hrm, the actual results seem to be a far cry from life. It sounds like his big accomplishment is replacing the head group on a phospholipid to make it a phospho-metallic-lipid, which while neat is not really the same as making 'living metal'. You'll get mycelle formation, sure, but I fail to see how that's much different from the mycelle formation you'd get with detergent in water. Certainly, Tide doesn't suggest they're inching closer to 'living soap', nor do we get people on the forums wailing about how science is about to throw us to our suds-y doom.

It sounds like the hydrophobic interactions are coming from the organic part of his molecules, so I fail to see how this is even a demonstration that you don't need carbon for life. It's closer to a demonstration that you might be able to get away with slightly less carbon. I suppose, "Scientist demonstrates that one or two carbons could be replaced by metal atoms in some biological molecules" is not as exciting as a headline.

That said, although I think the current claims being made are a little premature, I'll be on the lookout to see if he gets anywhere interesting with this.

I'd say that the potential uses are pretty exciting. Imagine having synthetic cells to replace your dying ones, made with a shell of metal. Depending on the resources, this could be a huge step towards biological immortality OR the transhuman revolution. In any event, you're right that, in and of itself, this news is awesome but not exactly crazy, but I'd say that the potential is huge.

 

[Zykon TheLich]

The guys name is Lee Cronin that's pretty close to Necron anyway...

It does have a necron ring to it, uh oh

It's actually an anagram of "Necron lie".

 

[Nouw]

This is starting to sound a bit too much like Necrons...

Now all we need to do is discover Adamantium and a way to implant over 15 organs into the human body!

 

[Strazdas]

all i can say is replicators [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replicator_%28Stargate%29]

is there a non-carbon based life form somewhere - extremely high chance of the answer being yes.
is this a new race? - probably not.

 

[Android2137]

Here's hoping that turians, and by extension, Garrus Varkarian, exists somewhere out there...

 

[LostTimeLady]

I refer the readers to the 1974/5 Doctor Who episode Robot:

[image height=400]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fe/Robot_%28Doctor_Who%29.jpg[/IMG]

Living metal, bam! (Don't worry, the Doctor made a metal virus to get rid of it).

Also, horray for British Scientific insitutions! You go Glasgow!

 

[dickywebster]

The guys name is Lee Cronin that's pretty close to Necron anyway...

It does have a necron ring to it, uh oh

It's actually an anagram of "Necron lie".

Think hes double bluffing?

 

[azukar]

This is starting to sound a bit too much like Necrons...

My thoughts exactly. Personally, I've pre-bought some "I The Deceiver" tshirts, so hopefully I won't get eaten straight away.

 

[tahrey]

Wait a minute... am I missing something? This might already have been pointed out, but... Sodium is a metal. So is Potassium, and Calcium. Hell, HYDROGEN is a metal. Carbon is a semi-metal. Magnesium and Iron are essential parts of the energy generating and oxygen transport systems of a huge proportion of earthly organisms. Zinc, Manganese (or was it Molybdenum? Or both?), Copper, Strontium, Lithium etc all have small but often essential roles to play in healthy metabolism.

So can someone tell me exactly what is the unique thing he's done, here?

 

[D0WNT0WN]

The goal, he claims, is to cull the weak iCHELLs, leaving only the strongest, fittest examples of metallic life.

You could say he is going to test their mettle.

 

[Roamin11]

I see a lot of "Yay maybe we can make necrons, or yay transformers"


I'm lookin forward to little iChlls making the Shrike

 

[unacomn]

I for one welcome our new metallic overlords.

 

[TheMadDoctorsCat]

And you HAD to bust out the silver-painted Mario impersonator for illustrative purposes, didn't you, Escapist staff?

You guys are getting way too predictable...

 

[Jumpingbean3]

So when can we expect the first Augmentation?