Good Idea or Bad Idea?

[Steamboy]

A 500 million-year-old bacteria has been brought back to life in a laboratory at Georgia Tech in an experiment with echoes of Jurassic Park's disastrous recreation of the dinosaurs. The researchers have resurrected a 500-million-year-old gene and inserted it into a modern E Coli bacteria. The 'Frankenstein' germ has thrived. In the lab, the creation has now lived through 1,000 generations. The scientists hope to find out whether the 'ancient' bacteria will evolve the same way it did 'first time round'--or whether it will evolve into a different, new organism.

[madrushian]

In the lab, the creation has now lived through 1,000 generations

What does this mean? A generation is about 20 years long. Are you saying this bacteria was brought back to life 20,000 years ago and we still have been keeping track of it?
Something is goofy with the wording Steamboy. Help me out.

And I would likely side with caution. IF they have better knowledge of what the bacteria is, what it is like, what it's general purpose and effect is, then sure bring it on back.
IF they are just hoping to find out, what the heck is this thing?, then no, leave it be. It could be a dead bacteria strain that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. In which case, bringing it back could be a terrible idea. I guess I would need more info before I could make a better decision.

Yes I understand that dinosaurs existed more recently than 500 million years ago, but this could still be a strain that evolved into a deadly dino-killer.

Also I am also very skeptical of carbon dating and dating of bacteria's, etc in general. It does not seem like a very exact science. Now if the article says the bacteria is 487,123,895 years 11 months and 4 days old. That may be more impressive. But 500 million is clearly a rounded number. How much are they off? Does the article give a better actual age?

Sorry, Steamboy, likely more than you wanted, but I need answers before I determine if we should resurrect a potential global killer from the past.

[Dasffion]

In the lab, the creation has now lived through 1,000 generations

What does this mean? A generation is about 20 years long. Are you saying this bacteria was brought back to life 20,000 years ago and we still have been keeping track of it?
Something is goofy with the wording Steamboy. Help me out.

A generation is roughly 20-30 years in terms of Humans, it's the average time between when someone is born and when they have a child. The generations he's referring to is likely something like the time between when it mutates and when it mutates again.

[Steamboy]

I was wondering the same thing. I thought that they meant that the bacteria was in its 1000th generation like what Das said.

Good point Mad. Maybe we found the bacteria that killed the dinosaurs.

I just pasted in the first few paragraphs of the article in my OP.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2172406/Jurassic-Park-Petri-dish-Scientists-recreate-500-million-year-old-bacteria-lab--possibly-wrong.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

[GinsengSamurai]

I enjoy science and I think a lot of science is good for the progression of humanity, but I think similarly to faith, there should be a line, a thick one that tells scientists to stop and think hard before they cross it.

Things like that can be stolen or leaked and then that's it, we're all f**ked. Stolen by militants to be used as a bio weapon. Leaked due to human error.

You know when they built the LHC, I was already like: "Damn, that's a bit scary." What if they create a 'mini' big bang on earth? Well, that's the end of all life as we know it if that happens. At least it will be a quick split second death.

Sometimes, I see the overall idea of scientists as a bunch of highly intelligent, but know-no-boundaries sort of kids that like to experiment.

[Dasffion]

I enjoy science and I think a lot of science is good for the progression of humanity, but I think similarly to faith, there should be a line, a thick one that tells scientists to stop and think hard before they cross it.

Things like that can be stolen or leaked and then that's it, we're all f**ked. Stolen by militants to be used as a bio weapon. Leaked due to human error.

You know when they built the LHC, I was already like: "Damn, that's a bit scary." What if they create a 'mini' big bang on earth? Well, that's the end of all life as we know it if that happens. At least it will be a quick split second death.

Sometimes, I see the overall idea of scientists as a bunch of highly intelligent, but know-no-boundaries sort of kids that like to experiment.

Yeah, have you ever read "The Stand"? Enough said.