J. Craig Ventner can be kind of a blow-hard, but waking up to this article made realize that we are indeed living in a new century. Synthetic DNA. Wow. Nobel Laureate Hamilton Smith explains what the next step is:

�The third step, which we�re working on now, is to take the chemically synthesized DNA, which is in the test tube, and get it into a bacterium where it can take over and produce a synthetic cell,� Smith said.

Yup. Pretty much speechless over here. The press release is here. J. Craig�s sweet laboratory of bleeding edge mad, mad science is just up the road in Rockville, MD.