It takes about 30,000 genes to make you such a wondrously complex lifeform. Those genes can be credited for your enviable physique, your sparkling eyes and those heartstopping dimples.
Okay, let’s cut the flattery and hotfoot it to the other end of life’s spectrum. Here, it may take fewer than 400 genes to build a basic lifeform. This is what Craig Venter, the buccaneering American biologist who was instrumental in spelling out the human genome, is attempting to do. His plan is to sew together the minimum number of genes necessary to create an off-the-shelf, living microbe.
