- Joined
- Mar 28, 2010
- Messages
- 3,671
- Reaction score
- 1,059
- Gender
- Undisclosed
- Political Leaning
- Independent
Synthetic Bacterial Genome Takes Over Cell - NYTimes.comThe genome pioneer J. Craig Venter has taken another step in his quest to create synthetic life, by synthesizing an entire bacterial genome and using it to take over a cell.
Dr. Venter calls the result a “synthetic cell” and is presenting the research as a landmark achievement that will open the way to creating useful microbes from scratch to make products like vaccines and biofuels. At a press conference Thursday, Dr. Venter described the converted cell as “the first self-replicating species we’ve had on the planet whose parent is a computer.”
this little critter has already replicated over a billion times. it is very definitely alive.
but... is it a something in itself?
geo.