BREAKING: Man-made organism comes to life -- in a cesspool near you

She is far beyond the hubris of mankind that created Dolly the cloned sheep. She is Synthia, a bacterium made of spliced bits of DNA. Dr. Frankenstein would be green with envy.

She is hungry and prolific and her poo is black gold. If she escapes her breeding pond there will be no going back; she will writhe in ecstacy in the morning sunlight and putrify the land with her children; we are arrogant to think we can harness Mother Nature`s ability to reproduce. Torches and pichforks by moonlight will not be enough to punish her creators.

Just remember that you heard it here first.

In a few weeks there will be an annoucement. It will be lauded as The Technology That Will Save Us All (TM). With simple sugars as her food, she will take from the starving masses of humanity and produce untold wealth for a select few. There will be a Synthia to poo jet fuel, another Synthia to poo plastic. She is only limited by our imagination.

Mother would never tell me.

Or would you like to expand on this?

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In other words, it would limit other members of the capitalist class's ability to profit by manufacturing generic versions of the same artificially mutated organisms. The ethical objection is dismissed with a wink and a nod, saying that Craig Venter of Celera Genomics will be pleased to learn his opponents feel "God has competition". In other words, Craig Venter and his venture capitalist cronies are more important than what Economist takes to be a fictional God and His claim to ownership of life itself (Read the article.)

"The (bioethics) organisation hopes this name (Synthia) will stick in the popular consciousness... Indeed, it is rather a good name. Given the affection that Dolly attracted once the shock of her existence had been absorbed, perhaps Dr Venter—himself no slouch at publicity—will adopt it."

(In other words, the sheeple are like a frog in a pot. Give them something to hang onto and they'll accept anything.)

"ETC's argument has some force. Synthetic biology is developing fast and it is easy to see it being used out of malice."

(straw man. nowhere is malice mentioned in bioethicists' objections to patent bioengineering. economists love to use the specter of 'malice' as a shibboleth to distort and thereby minimize ethicists' arguments, knowing that use of a technology 'with malice' does not come until said technology is popularized, after all the respectable money has been made, and without regulation as to what constitiutes 'malice'; remember, pure greed is not considered malice, and is actually considered a driving force behind the economy by our neoliberal elite.)

"That said, one of the advantages of a minimal genome is that the genes removed, while not essential for survival, are essential for robustness. A bug relying on such a genome could not possibly live in the wild if it accidentally escaped."

(Nothing can go wrong. go wrong.)

"One objection is that the patent's claims are too widely drawn. It attempts, for example, to reserve the right to any method of hydrogen or ethanol production that uses such an organism. (Dr Venter thinks synthetic biology is going to be important as a way of making fuels.)...

To the extent that sweeping claims may stifle innovation, these are certainly things that need to be considered.

However, the more profound objection ETC has seems to be based on the idea that there are areas where mankind should not meddle.

In other words, "Who is this God character and who laid down these fake ethical rules that we, the neoliberal capitalist elite, did not lay down for ourselves? The only rules that count are the rules of capitalism; what's important are not the rights of man (and scope thereof) but the rights of competing members of the capitalist class, to develop patent portions of the same minimal artificial genome required for life. Why should Venter get a cut of every dollar that is made on artificial life?"

I agree with the authorities... there are areas where mankind should not meddle. Synthesizing the genetic material and injecting it inside a "ghost cell" within a biological membrane reminds me of some things we can't explain already...

HIV and some forms of bacterium that don't "go away" as they should form normal immune defenses. Shit, we're already at a point where most of the current antimicrobials on the market will be ineffective in another 5 or 6 years!!!