If You Wish to Make a Gene from Scratch

June 16, 2014

(Scientific American) – According to the New York Times, synthetic biology is creating DNA out of thin air. A recent article about synthetic biology and consumer goods describes DNA synthesis as a process where “DNA is created on computers and inserted into organisms.” Computers are pretty cool and really useful in synthetic biology labs, but it takes a lot more than a computer to turn a text file full of A’s T’s C’s and G’s into DNA.