Machines Like Us – Science News

Recent advances suggest that the creation of synthetic life is just around the corner. Although enormous benefits may come of such research, dangers abound. We should reflect on what this tells us about the nature of life. But we also need to think.

Last year, the team at Synthetic Genomics succeeded in transferring the DNA from one bacterium to another, in a sense creating a new species. And last week, Smith and his 16 colleagues, including Craig Venter, announced the next crucial step towards synthetic life. They have used the known genetic sequence of a simple bacterium, Mycoplasma genitalium, to recreate, chemically, the entire DNA of its chromosome. The next step? They will try to implant artificial chromosomes into empty bacterial cells, in the hope that they will come alive.

But there are reasons for concern. The technology to synthesize DNA from publicly available sequences is getting cheaper and simpler. Genetic information -- the sequence of the bird flu virus, for instance -- is available on the internet. That's good for science, but it means that anyone with the capacity to synthesise DNA and with less benevolent motives than Venter and his colleagues could use this information maliciously, to make new and deadly infectious organisms.

Read full story in The Guardian.