It’s a fun time to be a biologist. The Science paper from the J. Craig Venter Institute on reengineering a Mycoplasma cell using the techniques of synthetic biology stole the media spotlight for several weeks in May and June, and will likely be debated in blogs, tweets, and podcasts for many months to come. The first evaluation delivered in Faculty of 1000 deemed it “exceptional” and “proof of concept,” further suggesting it would initiate interesting scientific and philosophical discussions. Indeed, the discourse among thought leaders in Nature, Edge, and other science publications has been thoughtful and far reaching—a journal club on steroids.
1st cell with synthetic genome
Thought experiment: Is the synthetic cell about life?
Whether or not this is just about tools, as some have suggested, or a major discovery, as others propose (see the quote by Freeman Dyson on page 18), the achievement of the ...
