Table 1 Several examples of headlines generated by J. C. Venter Institute achievements (milestones after JCVI website: https://www.jcvi.org/publications)
Milestone | Headline | Reference |
|---|---|---|
Bacterial genome transplantation (Lartigue et al. 2007) | “Playing God. How scientists are creating life forms or biodevices that could change the world” | Newsweek June 3, 2007 |
First synthetic bacterial genome (Gibson et al. 2008) | “Playing God: the man who would create artificial life” | Independent January 25, 2008 |
First self-replicating synthetic cell (Gibson et al. 2010) | “And man made life. The first artificial organism and its consequences” | The Economist May 20, 2010 |
“Scientist Craig Venter creates life for first time in laboratory sparking debate about ‘playing god’. Artificial life has been created in a laboratory for the first time by a maverick scientist.” | The Telegraph May 20, 2010 | |
“American scientist who created artificial life denies ‘playing God’. Craig Venter, the American biologist who has created artificial life in a laboratory for the first time, has defended himself against accusations he was ‘playing God’.” | The Telegraph May 21, 2010 | |
First minimal cell (Hutchison 3rd et al., 2016) | “Breakthrough in synthetic biology is far from ‘playing God’. The creation of a cell with the minimal number of genes necessary for life is to be applauded - mostly for what it tells us about our ignorance.” | New Scientist March 30, 2016 |