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

[Ben Zaiboc]

Giulio Prisco <giulio at gmail.com> wrote:
 
> As usual, the press covers this development with some hype.
> But beyond the
> press' hype, this is a spectacular achievement. Especially
> from a memetic
> point of view: we know that life can be engineered as a
> matter of fact, and
> goodbye vitalist mysticism.

<Devil's Advocate>
I doubt it.

Not meaning to trivilaise what they've done, but it was 'only' the copying of some existing DNA and then inserting it into a cell without it's own DNA.  You could interpret this as meaning that DNA isn't as important as we thought, and the 'Elan Vital' lies in protoplasm.  Synthesise /that/, Venter!
</Devil's Advocate>

Ben Zaiboc