What's New in Cosmic Ancestry provides an update on the latest research. With NASA funding this approach will be much in the headlines in the next few years. The NASA astrobiology website paints a more optimistic picture. A National Space Society site provides broad coverage of the field. Life via Synthesis A leading genetics researcher has worked out the process to create a synthetic bacterium.
Scientists say it is only a short step to the creation of much more complex life forms.
This raises the real possibility of synthesizing new species of plants and animals. The production of a written blueprint for creating a synthetic organism so rapidly will confound skeptics. His creative plan is based on the simple, little Mycoplasma genitalia, a parasite, which, as the name suggests, sets up home in human reproductive organs. The parasite has only four hundred and seventy genes, all told. Venter wants to see whether he can make something live out of three hundred of them.