[ExI] Holy Schlamoley! Venter's team creates synthetic life!

[Zero Powers]

It was a dream that began nearly 15 years ago, when Craig
Venter<http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/venter>,
a Vietnam veteran turned geneticist, resolved one day to create a genome
from scratch – and with it, make the first ever synthetic life form. Last
night, in a dramatic announcement that led some to accuse him of playing
God, Venter said the dream had come true, saying he had created an organism
with manmade DNA.

The feat, hailed as an epochal scientific breakthrough by some but an
alarming development by others, was achieved by scientists at the J Craig
Venter Insititute in Rockville, Maryland using little more than a computer,
some common microbes, a DNA synthesizer and four bottles of chemicals.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/may/20/craig-venter-synthetic-life-genome
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