Geneticist Creates First Synthetic Cell

It sounds a little Frankenstein-esque, but a prominent US geneticist has created what he calls the first synthetic living cell. Craig Venter built the genome of a bacterium from scratch and implanted it in a cell, a development seen as an important step toward the creation of artificial life, the Guardian reports. Venter and his team spent 10 years and $40 million on the project, and the results are appearing in Science.

Venter imagines creating microorganisms that can eat greenhouse gas emissions or crank out vaccines. Though plenty of skepticism exists about this approach, as the New York Times notes here, many scientists see the experiment as a milestone in biology. "Venter is creaking open the most profound door in humanity's history, potentially peeking into its destiny," one Oxford professor said. "He is going towards the role of a god: creating artificially life that could never have existed naturally." (More Craig Venter stories.)