[wbarmy]

The researchers built up the synthetic genome of M mycoides, with its million chemical letters, by stitching together shorter stretches of DNA, each about 1,000 letters long. They then transferred the completed genome into the shell of another bacterium M capricolum whose own DNA had been removed.

They used 4 different strands of pre-existing DNA to do this. They did not create the "life" from scratch. What a huge misrepresentation.

[Joe Brower]

"They used 4 different strands of pre-existing DNA to do this. They did not create the "life" from scratch. What a huge misrepresentation."

I didn't see this bit. Yes, that makes their "synthesis" a lot less than pure.

[drbuzzard]

>They used 4 different strands of pre-existing DNA to do this. They did not create the “life” from scratch. What a huge misrepresentation.

Yes and no. They certainly didn’t make up a custom soup from scratch and have it come to life. However they did make a life form with a custom set of DNA. That has huge implications in terms of being able to customize life forms. If it does enable the creation of organisms which cook up petrochemicals just using water and CO2, then the whole issue of fuel independence is solved.

[LibLieSlayer]

Kind of like gm claiming they paid off all of their loans.

LLS