Biologists who dress up hi-tech eugenics as a new art form are dangerously deluded
Recently, J Craig Venter, the gene scientist whose company, Celera Genomics, led the race to map the human genome, announced a plan to create the first artificial life form in a laboratory dish. Venter, who has teamed up with the Nobel laureate biologist Hamilton Smith, says he hopes to use a $3m US government grant to create partially man-made organisms that could produce hydrogen for fuel or break down carbon dioxide from power plant emissions. Other scientists worry that Venter's creation could wreak havoc on natural ecosystems or be used to create new kinds of biological weapons.