This synthetic life

In the recent interview in Newsweek Craig Venter states, "If we made an organism that produced fuel, that could be the first billion - or trillion-dollar organism”.

True to his entrepreneurial spirit Craig has already created the company that will make the new synthetic life forms. Synthetic Genomics, Inc. will commercialise synthetic microbes for use in energy, agriculture and climate change remediation.

From a broader perspective the very nature of biodiversity is changing dramatically: natural selection processes are being short cut and man becomes the Intelligent Designer of life.

The reduction in diversity of species on this planet has been a concern for many environmentalists. However they have mainly been concerned with the macro flora and fauna. The enormous diversity of micro-organisms has been put in the too hard basket. And now we have finally gone from changing genes one by one in the laboratory to creating whole new organisms with hundreds and thousands of interacting genes.

The creation of the first synthetic life form is truly a milestone and a scientific achievement worthy of the Noble prize. The future will tell if this is the first step into the new era of the bio economy underpinned by more or less intelligent design of new life forms.