[Lurker]

This will end well....

[stuartcr]

I hate it when synthetic DNA starts controlling my cells, it always feels weird.

[Joe Brower]

Here's another FR thread on this from a different source: CLICK.

Evidently, these fellows used pre-existing bits of DNA; so much for their "synthesis"...

[ForAmerica]

Trying to be like God, Satan tried it and look what happened to him!

[GraceG]

Can they Manufacture some sythetic Spines for the GOP?

[glorgau]

Nah, this is about the equivalent of putting a new BIOS in complete motherboard. Didn’t replicate the I/O processors or the network.

[nina0113]

“Get your own dirt.”

[battousai]

Just read this from another newspaper too and seems like over zealous hype. They have not created new life, they had to use an already ‘alive’ bacterium to put their new DNA into. But the media so eager to show that life could happen by accident will jump at any straw.

[atomic conspiracy]

“hope eventually to design bacterial cells that will produce medicines and fuels and even absorb greenhouse gases.”

We already have organisms that do that. They are called “plants.” Just how dim is the Beeb audience anyway?

[OneWingedShark]

>The researchers constructed a bacterium's "genetic software" and transplanted it into a host cell.

If they used C/C++ I'm going to laugh my ass off when they realize there's a memory-leak...
;)

[piytar]

“and even absorb greenhouse gases”

Yeah, let’s make a synthetic bacteria that gobbles up all the CO2! That will stop global warming (or climate change or whatever)!

Of course, it would also kill almost all life on Earth, but hey, it’s for the CHILDREN!

As another poster said, this will end well...

[Theo]

If true, this may affirm Intelligent Design.

[epluribus_2]

I’ve seen this movie before - I Am Legend.

[rednesss]

What is the bacteria’s inception date???

[Secret Agent Man]

And this will be how they kill off over 5 billion people.

[backwoods-engineer]

Synthetic life? Make your own universe first, and then I will be impressed.

--God

[BuffaloJack]

Will they call it abominatia frankensteinis?

[rintense]

All of this has happened before. It will happen again.

[GingisK]

Aw, come back and brag about it when you don’t need a “host cell”.

[Abin Sur]

Overstated headline, but cool nonetheless!