Tallis in Wonderland

The Soup and The Scaffolding

Raymond Tallis finds some scaffolding in his soup.

A little while back, the world woke up to the announcement that the team led by the flamboyant American molecular biologist and entrepreneur Craig Venter had created the world’s first artificial life form. A brand new organism, rejoicing in the name ‘Synthia’, had seen the light of day in his lab. He told eyes-on-stalks journalists that this success had changed his “view of the definition of life and of how life works.” The implication was that it should have the same effect on the rest of us.

Many fellow scientists were less excited.

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