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Heralding a potential new era in biology, scientists for the first time have created a synthetic cell, completely controlled by man-made genetic instructions, researchers at the private J. Craig Venter Institute announced Thursday. "We call it the first synthetic cell," said genomics pioneer Craig Venter, who oversaw the project. "These are very much real cells." Created at a cost of $40 million, this experimental one-cell organism, which can reproduce, opens the way to the manipulation of life on a previously unattainable scale, several researchers and ethics experts said. Scientists have been altering DNA piecemeal for a generation, producing a menagerie...

David Queller and Joan Strassmann, evolutionary biologists at Rice University, recently proposed a new way to describe what makes an organism a unified whole. They defined an organism as an entity made up of parts that cooperate well for an overall purpose, and do so with minimal conflict. But how do parts like these get together, and where does purposeful behavior come from?...

Biological organisms play a significant role in the formation of rain and snow, according to a study released Thursday by the journal Science. The discovery of these organisms and their importance in the water cycle could help researchers improve climate forecasts and better understand the relationship between the biosphere and climate, the authors concluded. They could also one day be used to bring rain to dry areas, said lead author Brent Christner of Louisiana State University. Scientists have long known that the ice crystals in clouds which become rain or snow need to cling to some kind of particle, called...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – What are the limits of organic life in planetary systems? It’s a heady question that, if answered, may reveal just how crowded the cosmos could be with alien biology. A study arm of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Research Council (NRC), has pulled together a task group of specialists to tackle the issue of alternative life forms -- a.k.a. "weird life". To get things rolling, a workshop on the prospects for finding life on other worlds is being held here May 10-11. The meeting is a joint activity of the NRC’s Space Studies Board's Task...

They thrive without oxygen, growing in salty, alkaline conditions, and may offer insights into what kinds of life might survive on Mars. They're a new species of organism, isolated by scientists at the National Space Science and Technology Center (NSSTC) in Huntsville, Ala. The discovery, published in the May 2003 issue of the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology, identifies a species named Spirochaeta americana by the two NSSTC scientists -- Richard Hoover and Dr. Elena Pikuta. They isolated this new organism from oxygen-deprived mud sediments from Northern California's Mono Lake - a salty, alkaline lake in an enclosed...

Since 1973, when the Roe abortion decision was handed down from the Supreme Court of the United States, science has advanced our understanding of prenatal (before birth) life to a depth few could have anticipated. Most of the discoveries are unexplained for the general public, as we wend our way through daily life unaware of the amazing truths being revealed through honest hard science. The entire spectrum of prenatal discovery supports a rejection of abortion on demand and reinforces the correctness of protecting prenatal life. In an attempt to address the many discoveries through a series of easy essays, we...

Scientists Planning to Make New Form of Life By Justin Gillis Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, November 21, 2002; Page A01 Scientists in Rockville are to announce this morning that they plan to create a new form of life in a laboratory dish, a project that raises ethical and safety issues but also promises to illuminate the fundamental mechanics of living organisms. J. Craig Venter, the gene scientist with a history of pulling off unlikely successes, and Hamilton O. Smith, a Nobel laureate, are behind the plan. Their intent is to create a single-celled, partially man-made organism with the minimum...

Organism found in Black Sea 'could halt global warming' German scientists claim to have discovered a methane-eating life form which could halt global warming. Researchers say it lives in the Black Sea and could be the world's oldest organism at four billion years old. The team from the Max Planck Society found the micro-organisms at depths where there is no light or oxygen. The Guardian reports, until now, scientists had thought methane could only be broken down with oxygen. The German researchers hope the organism could be used to 'eat up' reservoirs of the greenhouse gas which are trapped below...