More on Venter's bid for godhood
Tuesday, June 1, 2010 at 12:04AM 
FT full-page "analysis," plus Economist editorial and briefing.
FT first:
The first application for synthetic genomes may be the rapid development of new flu vaccines . . . "If this technology had been available last year, we could have cut the period needed to make a vaccine for H1N1 by 99 percent," says Dr Venter. "We could have done it in a day."
The basic reminder: most life extension is accomplished by defeating everyday disease, not revamping the body. So the benefits of life extension tend to be fairly democratic, meaning everybody gets them--and not just the super-rich.
Venter, as indicated before here, is focused on creating algae that can suck CO2 out of the air and produce hydrocarbons--great stuff that should be happening here in America.
From The Economist:
Is the answer lots of new rules? The better answer is profound openness on developments, so a vote for open-source.
A key glimpse of the future: the falling cost of analyzing DNA sequences and the faster and cheaper DNA synthesis.
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