James Joyce's Words Come To Life, And Are Promptly Desecrated

This old English major's heart is warmed by the news that the new synthetic cell carries a line from James Joyce, inscribed in its DNA: "To live, to err, to fall, to triumph, to recreate life out of life."

What would Joyce have thought if someone had told him that one day that the synthesized genome of a goat pathogen would carry his words? I would hope that whoever told him would make sure that he did not think this moment marked his literary immortality. In fact, his deathless prose is...