<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/856c4424-714d-48d1-b08a-c54a6bc132be/273018A0-7F38-4341-B028-9582AC5BBA63/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/anjana_ahuja/article1895426.ece" href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/anjana_ahuja/article1895426.ece" style="font-size: 11px;">www.timesonline.co.uk</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/anjana_ahuja/article1895426.ece"> it may take fewer than 400 genes to build a basic lifeform. This is what Craig Venter, the buccaneering American biologist who was instrumental in spelling out the human genome, is attempting to do. His plan is to sew together the minimum number of genes necessary to create an off-the-shelf, living microbe.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/anjana_ahuja/article1895426.ece"> Would a synthetic bug cause havoc if it escaped from the lab? No, because it’s too weak to survive in the wild. Could synthetic biology be used to build bioweapons? Yes.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/anjana_ahuja/article1895426.ece"> Controversially, he has filed a patent on his minimalist microbe</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/anjana_ahuja/article1895426.ece"> If granted, the patent would give Venter the monopoly on using artificial microbes for generating clean fuel.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/anjana_ahuja/article1895426.ece"><P> Such microbes could save the planet. They could also be worth a trillion dollars, making Venter the richest man on Earth. One civil society group accused the Venter Institute, the research company he runs, of aspiring to be a “Microbesoft”. </P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/273018A0-7F38-4341-B028-9582AC5BBA63/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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