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It's not Frankenstein, But It's a Start
Scientific Blogging — Craig Venter says that in a few months, his team will have created the first genuine artificial life form within a few months. As you may recall, Venter's team did the first whole genome transplant a few years back, which involved taking the genome of one species of bacteria and putting it into the genome-free cell of another closely related species. The new hybrid species was able to reboot with the new genome. According to The Times: Artificial life will be created within four months, a controversial scientist has predicted. Craig Venter, who led a private project to ...

Synthetic Life By the Year’s End? Yes, Proclaims Craig Venter.
Discover Magazine | rsslist — ... has a history of bold endeavors; in the 1990s he founded the private genomics company that raced federal scientists to complete the first draft of the human genome. He also has a reputation as an avid self-promoter with a habit of making big promises, so his latest statements about his team’s progress on synthetic life come as little surprise. “Assuming we don’t make any errors, I think it should work and we should have the first synthetic species by the end of the year,” he said [ The Times ]. That may sound optimistic, but since Venter’s efforts on the human genome are ...