This article reported that the Venter Institute managed to transplant the genome of one species of bacteria into another. The recipient bacteria appeared to become the donor, but they’re not sure quite how it got rid of the recipient’s original DNA. Venter said that they’re not reporting on synthetic life, but this could be a significant step to creating artificial life.
Things like this, while exciting, start to push on my comfort zone. It’s impossible to foretell how quickly technology might advance and how far things will go. Would we end up in a Gattaca, Bladerunner or The Island type world? Thankfully there is an enormous difference between manipulating bacteria and manipulating more complex cells.
The Institute wants to patent the processes involved. Trying to do that seems to go against the spirit of science. Surely science pursues knowledge, which is shared and built upon. Discoveries are also reported, such that the findings can be reproduced and shown to be true. If all the methods involved are owned and monopolised then they’re not really able to be tested against other scientific knowledge and methods. They may even evade testing by common morals and ethics since what is known about them may be limited to certain people. Perhaps it’s all about money, people can measure the findings to their heart’s content, only restricted by their wallet.