This milestone and many like it should be celebrated. But has the JCVI created 'new life' and tested vitalism? Not really. The semi-synthetic mycobacterium is not changed from the wild state in any fundamental sense. Printing out a copy of an ancient text isn't the same as understanding the language. We already had confidence in our ability to make synthetic DNA and get it to function in cells. The grand challenge remains understanding the parts of cells that help the DNA to function. This will be addressed by genetics, biochemistry and three-dimensional structures of the core life processes of biopolymer synthesis.
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