Pic here FT story.
"We have passed through a critical psychological barrier," says Dr. Craig Venter, after unveiling his achievement--the world's first synthetic cells. It comes after a 15-year effort, this creation of a new bacteria.
An ethics professor at Oxford puts it this way:
Venter is creating open the most profound door in humanity's history. This is a step towards . . . creation of living beings with capacities and natures that could never have naturally evolved.
Venter's near-term goals include creating algae that can capture CO2 from the air and produce hydrocarbon fuels. He's got a $600m deal with Exxon to this end.
The bare bones description: Venter creates a synthetic genome, then transfers it into the shell of an existent bacteria that--apparently, had its genome stripped out. The new synthetic genome thereupon booted-up the host cell and took it over.
You have to believe this is a big step toward the possibility of engineering human replacement organs--perhaps to the point of improving them dramatically or creating better babies through chemistry (ever seen the movie "Gattaca"?).
It also portends biowarfare possibilities, of course.
Venter admitted as much by calling the technology "dual-use," a term of art in my community to denote technology that can be used for civilian and military purposes.