Scientists who seek to imitate living cells say they can't help but be perpetually dazzled by the genuine articles, their flexibility, their versatility, their childlike grandiosity. No matter what outrageous or fattening things we may ask our synthetic cells to do, scientists say, it's nothing compared with what cells already have done of their own accord, usually in the format of bacteria.
Craig Venter, the controversial DNA researcher involved in the race to decipher the human genetic code, has built a synthetic chromosome out of laboratory chemicals and is poised to announce the creation of the first new artificial life form on Earth.
Synthetic biology -- the emerging science of creating genomes, cellular components and even whole cellular organisms from scratch -- confronts regulators with some tricky problems.
One of the world's most powerful supercomputers has conjured a fleeting moment in the life of a virus. The researchers say the simulation is the first to capture a whole biological organism in such intricate molecular detail.
Researchers are trying to complete the ultimate feat of genetic engineering: to reconstruct a living thing, down to every last molecule. This would "lift biology to a new level," they argue, enabling biologists to be able to understand life as deeply as engineers understand the bridges and airplanes that they build.
Los Alamos scientist Steen Rasmussen plans to one-up nature by cobbling together a brand-new creature that reproduces and evolves.
Scientists analyzing the genomes of microbes believe that they have reconstructed the pivotal event -- the merger of two primitive bacterial-type cells into a eukaryote -- that created the one-celled organism from which all animals and plants are descended, including people.
Is "synthetic biology" on the point of making life? Unlike genetic engineering or biotechnology, the new discipline is not about tinkering with biology but about remaking it. Risks and rewards will be greater than anything yet encountered.
First it was "gray goo," the threat of self-replicating machines populating the planet. Now an environmental think tank is raising the specter of "green goo," where biology is used to create new materials and new artificial life forms.
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Biologists are crafting libraries of interchangeable DNA parts and assembling them inside microbes to create programmable, living machines