‘Darwin chip’ brings evolution into the classroom
A new “Darwin chip” could make evolution as easy as pressing play.
Researchers have created an automated device that evolves a biological molecule on a chip filled with hundreds of miniature chambers.The molecule, which stitches together strands of RNA, became 90 times more efficient after just 70 hours of evolution.
“It’s survival of the fittest,” says Brian Paegel, a biochemist at the Scripps Research Institute, in La Jolla, California, who led the study with colleague Gerald Joyce.
The experiment could be used in the future to evolve molecules – or even cells – to sense environmental pollutants, Paegel says.
Link via newscientist.com
So we’re jump-starting evolution now? Fascinating–I wonder what will happen next…