A life encoded: how the bad boy of synthetic biology is changing the world.(Science Watch)(J. Craig Venter) From: The Humanist | Date: May 1, 2008| Author: Krause, Kenneth W. | COPYRIGHT 2008 American Humanist Association. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

'It's alive! It's alive!"--Dr. Frankenstein, at the moment of synthetic conception.

PLEASE, DON'T BE AFRAID. Mycoplasma genitalium doesn't have bloody bolts sticking out of its neck and it won't hop off the slab in a fuming lurch toward your throat. It's just a single-celled bacterium that, in fact, has no neck at all. Genny, as I'll call her, is anything but complicated or glamorous. As far as we know her genome is the smallest on earth, containing only 485 genes (huma...