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Mad scientists go berserk
One of the top developments of 2005 is a kind of genetic engineering on steroids—a new field called "synthetic biology" in which scientists are setting out to create new forms of life that never existed before.
In "genetic engineering," natural genes from one species are inserted by force into a different species, hoping to transfer the properties or characteristics of one species into another. Now scientists have overcome that limitation. They are learning to develop entirely new species, new forms of life.
The construction of living things from raw chemicals was first demonstrated in 2002 when scientists created a polio virus from scratch. They found the virus genome on the internet, and within 2 years had created a virus from raw chemicals. The synthetic virus reproduced and, when injected into mice, paralyzed them….
—Peter Montague, Counterpunch, 1/1/06