Why 'playing God' is (in principle) a good thing

I have some initial thoughts about the first synthetic cell up on the Guardian's Comment is Free. Feel free to comment, there or here.

And hey, I'm chuffed, and grateful to Andrew Brown for asking me to write it. He phoned me about 4 o'clock yesterday, sent me the article announcing the breakthrough, and I worked on my piece that evening and this morning. It was the first time I've seen embargoed news - it broke at 7 p.m. UK time yesterday - and I can well see how being in the loop like that c...