Creating a new gene in a single day could soon be possible. The technology could one day let researchers speedily rewrite genes, enabling them to make new medicines and fuels on the fly. Researchers have been able to make DNA since the 1970s. The traditional approach takes DNA nucleotides(核苷酸）and adds them, one by one, to a growing chain called an oligo(寡核苷酸）。But the process is typically slow and error-prone, limiting oligos to about 200 letters-a tiny part of the thousands of letters that make up most genes.

Over the decades, most researchers have settled on one particular polymerase(聚合酶），called TdT,because unlike others, it can attach new nucleotides to an oligo strand without following a DNA template strand. Scientists have tried for years to make TdT add one nucleotide at a time and stop, before repeating the process with a different nucleotide. But TdT doesn't work well with these modified nucleotides. “TdT is very picky." says Sebastian Palluk, a Ph. D. student. One such system, for example, required about an hour to add each modified base, far too slow to be practical.

Ultimately, the approach should be cheap, because TdT is easy to manufacture in bacteria. It's also fast. Most new nucleotides attach to the growing oligo in 10 to 20 seconds. For now,the step still takes a minute. So synthesizing a whole gene will still likely take the better part of a day.

The new approach is not quite ready. So far, the group has made oligos only 10 bases long. And there are still a few writing problems,as the approach was only 98% accurate at writing DNA, below the 99% accuracy of the traditional approach. In order to write oligos up to 1000 bases long, the approach will likely need to be 99.9% accurate.

A robot created at Stanford University in California is diving down to shipwreck and sunken (沉没的) planes in a way that humans can’t do. Known as OceanOneK, the robot allows its operators to feel like they’re underwater explorers, too.

OceanOneK is similar to a human diver from the front, with arms and hands and eyes that have 3D vision, capturing the underwater world in full color. The back of the robot has computers and eight multi-directional thrusters (推进器) that help it carefully explore the sites of fragile sunken ships. When an operator at the ocean’s surface uses controls to direct OceanOneK, the robot’s touch-based feedback system causes the person to feel the water’s resistance as well as the forms of artifacts (人工制品).

OceanOneK’s realistic sight and touch capabilities are enough to make people feel like they’re diving down to the depths-without the dangers or immense underwater pressure a human diver would experience.

The idea for OceanOneK came from a desire to study coral reefs in the Red Sea at depths beyond the normal range for divers. While OceanOneK was designed to reach maximum depths of 656 feet, researchers had a new goal: 1 kilometer, hence the new name for OceanOneK.

The researchers changed the robot’s body by using special foam (泡沫) to increase buoyancy (浮力)and fight the pressures of 1,000 meters-more than 100 times what humans experience at sea level. OceanOneK also got two new types of hands and increased arm and head motion.

During OceanOneK’s deep dive in February, team members discovered the robot couldn’t rise when they stopped for a thruster check. Floatation on the communications and power line had collapsed, causing the line to pile on the top of the robot.

They were able to pull the loose parts, and OceanOnek’s going down was a success. It dropped off a memorial marker on the seabed that reads, “A robot’s first touch of the deep seafloor-A vast new world for humans to explore.”

Khatib, a professor, called the experience an “incredible journey”. “This is the first time that a robot has been capable of going to such a depth, interacting with the environment, and permitting the human operator to feel that environment,” he said.

With rapid advances in medical science, cloning is slowly but surely looking like it could be in our near future. However, is it really an option that should be considered as a way to extend human life?

Reproductive cloning may help human families gain children, but there’s also a benefit for the animal world. It brings hope to people eager for children but unable to have their own or adopt. It can also bring about the recreation of species that have long since died, allowing scientists to fully study the species as a living creature instead of simply looking at images or bones.

Many believe that cloning can be used to replace failing organs. This will reduce the waiting list for organ donations and allow more people to be saved. Not only that, but because the organ is, in fact, your own organ, there would be less chance of rejection.

Cloning could prove helpful in genetic research. Using cloning technologies, genetic researchers would have a better understanding of the composition of genes and the effects of genetic constituents (成分) on human characters. There’s also the possibility of changing genetic constituents in cloned humans, and cloning could help fight genetic diseases.

While the cloning of body organs can help extend human life, it could also cause a lot of malpractice (玩忽职守). Along with the ability to clone desired characters, there could be the possibility of people deliberately reproducing undesired characters. This could lead to a rise in malpractices within society.

Cloning involves a process of creating identical genes. As such, there would be a lack of diversity in humankind. Scientists believe this lack of diversity will lower the human race's ability to adapt.

Whatever your view on cloning may be, studies show that the clone would in fact not be completely identical to the original just as twins are not completely identical. Though they might look alike, twins have different personalities and enjoy different things. The same could be said of clones. Even if technology were created in which your memories and thoughts could be transmitted (传送) to the clone, your clone would still be a different person.