First Synthetic Cell manufactured

This could possibly become one of the most revolutionary advancements, ever. Even though the inception is small on scale, the horizon is quite vast and as you listen to the explanation from Craig Venter you can understand this breakthrough that they've just been able to manufacture.

Craig Venter and team make a historic announcement: they've created the first fully functioning, reproducing cell controlled by synthetic DNA. He explains how they did it and why the achievement marks the beginning of a new era for science.

Heralding a potential new era in biology, scientists for the first time have created a synthetic cell, completely controlled by man-made genetic instructions, researchers at the private J. Craig Venter Institute announced Thursday. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...152341984.html Tom Deerinck and Mark Ellisman, National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research, University of California, San Diego Scanning electron micrographs of M. mycoide "We call it the first synthetic cell," said genomics pioneer Craig Venter, who oversaw the project. "These are very much real cells." Created at a cost of $40 million, this experimental one-cell organism, which can reproduce, opens the way to the manipulation of life on a previously unattainable scale, several researchers and ethics experts said. Scientists have been altering DNA piecemeal for a generation, producing a menagerie of genetically engineered plants and animals. But the ability to craft an entire organism offers a new power over life, they said.

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