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Only God can create life?or will we soon be able to do ittoo? Roland Pease writes for BBC that for the first time,U.S. researchers have created a form of artificial life.Their creation is nothing more than a group of crudebiological cells at the moment, but this could be the firststep in creating real life.

They made the cell walls from egg whites. Inside the cellsis E. coli bacteria that is stripped of its geneticmaterial. E. coli is a common bug that resides in spoiledfood and makes humans sick. The cells also contain an enzymefrom a virus.
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You may be able to blame some of your unhealthy habits on our genes. Everyone has one of two genes that cause them to either taste, or not taste, a certain bitter substance. The ability to taste these substances developed long ago, to protect people living in places where bitter tastes were a way to identify poisons. Today, the ability to taste?or not taste?that compound influences what people eat and even whether they become smokers.
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Maybe you like warm weather and hate the cold, or maybe you feel great during a brisk winter day. Scientists think that whether you’ll be happier in Florida or Vermont is encoded in your genes. And if you’re living in the wrong climate for your genetic makeup, it can make you get fat.

Geneticist Douglas Wallace found that these genes are in the cells’ mitochondria, which is passed down through the female line. Researchers think these were once independent bacteria that evolved to become part of the human cell, because they contain a separate string of DNA coding. Mitochondria are important when it comes to taking in and burning calories.
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Scientists have been able to double the life spans of fruit flies by manipulating one of their genes. Someday soon, they may be able to do it for us. Scientists have named the gene INDY for “I?m Not Dead Yet.”

Flies with a mutation in the INDY gene have lived for 71 to 110 days, more than twice as long as their usual life span of 37 days. The long-lived flies appear to be as healthy as normal flies, and continue to reproduce into old age.
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