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 [Nanovip.com - Nanotechnology companies directory and Nanotechnology products directory] Artificial letters added to life's alphabet: More generally, Romesberg notes that DNA and RNA are now being used for hundreds of purposes: for example, to build complex shapes, build complex nanostructures, silence disease genes, or even perform calculations. A new, unnatural, base pair could multiply and diversify these applications.

 [The David Robert Lewis Blog] FRINGE SCIENCE: Artificial Life’s dazzling chimera.: IN the mid-1980s Ridley Scott painted a haunting picture of artificial life - androids, patented snakes, and DIY replicants. Blade Runner is one of the seminal science fiction movies of all time and yet we as a species are only beginning to get to grips with the dilemma’s involved, since artificial life = artificial existence.  Thus, the announcement that science is on its way to creating artificial DNA in the laboratory, which could be as easily manipulated as computer code, brings to mind Harrison Ford’s chilling discovery that, like most artificial life-forms, nothing lives forever. 

 [kurzweilai.net Accelerating Intelligence News] Artificial letters added to life's alphabet: Two artificial DNA base pairs that behave like natural base pairs--including being copied accurately by the polymerase enzymes that replicate DNA inside cells--have been created by Scripps Research Institute researchers.

 [Windsor Humanist Society] Scientists Create Bacterium DNA - Artificial Life One Step Closer ...: The latest research uses a new technique that may help scientist construct even bigger DNA molecules from chemically created pieces, according to the report. The scientists designed fragments of DNA to build 101 segments of 5,000 to 7,000 base pairs, the molecules that form the rungs of the DNA ladder.

 [Wired Science] From Artificial Genome to Artificial Life: Hold Your (Synthetic ...: Venter, best-known for his work with the Human Genome Project but just as pioneering in the world of synthetic biology, is quite open about this. "We have this complete synthetic chromosome that's been sequenced and validated.

[Science and Society] Artificial DNA: From this and the other articles on this press release I gathered that the material in question is a synthetic bacterium based on Mycoplasma genitalium. It isn't clear as to whether they actually made it or just figured out how to.

 [Slashdot: Generated for sherms (15634)] Artificial Bases Added to DNA: So the only argument I can see which is left is that the safe guards in effect to prevent this getting into the environment are so good that the risk is minimal and/or the chance that this new DNA pair creating a dangerous organism are zero. Since nobody knows what this pair will do yet I can't see how you can be certain of the latter (although I accept the risk may be incredibly small) and no containment procedure is fool proof since it involves humans (e.g.

[Science Progress] Here’s One Big Step Toward Artificial Life: Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Maryland. Scientists have succeeded in synthesizing the complete genome of a bacterium, Mycoplasma genitalium.

 [Mwiner's Weblog] Artificial Life asks Fundamental Questions of the Living:  Scientists have taken laboratory chemicals and produced synthetic DNA.  This DNA should be sufficient to allow a bacteria to live, and reproduce.  Shortly, these same scientists will denucleate a bacterium and insert their synthetic DNA and in essence create the first artificial life form.  It is akin to cleaning out a computer’s hard-drive and putting in a new operating system.

 [Big Think Blog] Brave New World: A Giant Leap for Artificial Kind: This breakthrough is viewed as the precursor to creating an artificial life form based entirely on a synthetic genome. In the next and final stage of their research, the Maryland-based team will try to synthethically replicate the DNA sequence the of the simple mycoplasma genitalium bacteria, which is responsible for many sexually transmitted diseases.

[The CW11 Morning News Blog] Dr. Steve: Artificial Life & Singing Away The Blues: They basically made the entire genome or DNA of a bacterium by stitching together all of it's components in a laboratory. Why should we care about this?

[Drugzillaonline.com - Pharmacy Blog] Is This The Beginnings Of Artificial Life?: In what many believe to be a case of creating artificial life, American scientists have found a way of replication a bacterium's 582,970 base pair genome which should allow for the creation of biofuel-manufacturing bacteria - in other words, building bacteria from scratch that might produce fuel for things like cars. It is the largest man-made DNA structure ever made.

 [Wired Science] Wired Science Reveals Secret Codes in Craig Venter's Artificial Genome: Synthetic Biology: It's Not What You Learned, But What You Made. Genetic-Engineering Competitors Create Modular DNA Dev-Kit .

 [blogcatalog Blog Search: transplant] Innovations in Artificial Life - Craig Venter's "Designer" Cells: (TrendHunter.com) Biologists have announced the creation of a new synthetic chromosome as an advancement towards generating artificial life. Craig Venter and his team aim to transplant the new strand of DNA into a living cell.

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