ExxonMobil give $600 million to create 'synthetic life' http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/?lid=3619

John Craig Venter, the controversial American geneticist, and his team at the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) have recently completed their 15-year project to make the first 'synthetic cells'. This could be the first step towards the creation of living things with capacities and characteristics that could not have evolved naturally. Venter said: "It's the first self-replicating cell on the planet that's parent is a computer." Debate over the morality of Venter's attempts to 'play God' have been sparked by the development, but behind the scenes is a story of corporate power and destructive 'solutions' to climate change.