Now fast-forward to May of last year, when Venter and his team reported in Science(The Creationof a Bacterial Cell Controlled by a Chemically Synthesized Genome in Science), the successful generation of a cell directed entirely by a synthetic genome, programmed from a computer and synthesized piece by piece.
One solution, proposed by Matt Ridley, a British commentator on the social consequences of genetic knowledge (and former science editor ofThe Economist), might be thecreationof medical-treatment funds, similar to pension funds.
"By linking up computer technology with thescienceof olfaction, we can speed up thecreationof new compounds, and it can take us into areas we've never dreamed of, " says Rahman Ansari, vice president of technical affairs at Quest International, a unit of British chemical giant ICI that developed Este Lauder's blockbuster Tommy Girl.