We’re getting close to creating life from scratch. This article is about a team led by Craig Venter, including contributions from UBC and GSC here in Vancouver (Rob Holt is working with me on a project). They are starting with an bacterium that has an extremely small genome, knocking out more genes to get what they believe is the minimum required for life, and inserting the remaining DNA into a microbial “chassis” to see if it will become a viable organism. From the Globe and Mail: Creating first synthetic life form
This is another step on the road to humans taking control of biology as we have engineering and information. In the foreseeable future designing life will be akin to writing software. In other words, intelligent design – for real.