Scientists make progress toward artificial life

US SCIENTISTS have taken a significant step toward creating the first artificial life form by synthetically reproducing the DNA of a bacteria, according to a new study.

The move, which comes after five years of research, is seen as the penultimate stage in the endeavour to create an artificial life form based entirely on a man-made DNA genome — something which has tantalised scientists for years.

“Through dedicated teamwork we have shown that building large genomes is now feasible and scalable so that important applications such as biofuels can be developed,” said Hamilton Smith, from the J Craig Venter Institute, in the study published in Science.