Artificial synthetic living cell microbe created by Dr C. Venter Cal.

Scientists in the US

have succeeded in developing

the first synthetic living cell.

synthetic

bacteria could be dangerous

The synthetic cell looks identical to the 'wild type'

SYNTHETIC DNA MAKES HOST CELL ALIVE

The researchers constructed a bacterium's "genetic software"

and transplanted it into a host cell. The resulting microbe then

looked and behaved like the species "dictated" by the synthetic DNA.

The advance, published in Science, has been hailed as a scientific

landmark, but critics say there are dangers posed by synthetic

organisms. source: news.bbc.co.uk

Is Dr. Venter God ?

Dr Helen Wallace from Genewatch UK, an organisation that monitors

developments in genetic technologies, told BBC News that synthetic

bacteria could be dangerous.

"If you release new organisms into the environment, you can do more

harm than good," she said."By releasing them into areas of pollution,

[with the aim of cleaning it up], you're actually releasing a new kind

of pollution."We don't know how these organisms will behave in the

environment." Dr Wallace accused Dr Venter of playing down the

potential drawbacks.

Dr Venter | J.Craig Venter Institute http://www.jcvi.org