Aditya Malik writes "Wired has an interesting story up about how a lab led by Jack Szostak, a molecular botanist at Harvard Medical School, is architecture 'protocells' from artificial molecules which are very close to rewarding the altitude for being 'alive'. 'Szostak's protocells are built from fatty molecules that can trap bits of nucleic acids that contain the source code for replication. Combined with a process that harnesses ostensible energy from the sun or imine reactions, they could form a self-replicating, evolving system that satisfies the latitude of life, but isn't any one thing like life on earth now, but might serve life as it began or could exist elsewhere in the universe.' This without doubt raises some quiz about creationism, not to mention some scary bio-research-gone-wild scenarios."

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Mark