Obviously, this isn't the same as designing a new organism from scratch, but if we think of it as giving us the ability to cerate cells arbitrarily, which we didn't have before, then it's still a massive breakthrough.
Hmm. They synthesized an artificial genome and put that into an existing bacterium that had its DNA removed. Not sure if that classifies as artificial life. Probably a step closer.
Although probably also a step closer to all sorts of nasty bio weapons as well.
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andrewducker) wrote2010-05-21 12:01 pm
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Obviously, this isn't the same as designing a new organism from scratch, but if we think of it as giving us the ability to cerate cells arbitrarily, which we didn't have before, then it's still a massive breakthrough.
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Although probably also a step closer to all sorts of nasty bio weapons as well.