I don't know how I missed the rise of synthetic biology, a discipline focused on the engineering of life. While programmers and roboticists sit around thinking of ways to create artificial life, biologists have slowly come to realize that we know enough about the nuts and bolts of cells, genes, and DNA to create life on our own. Going beyond mere genetic manipulation or cloning, biologists recently constructed the first synthetic genome and are on their way to creating the first full-fledged synthetic organism.

Labels: biology, convergence, technology