Did you see that article recently talking about the imminent creation of artificial life? Looks fascinating, human beings creating new lifeforms themselves (for assorted purposes, mostly industrial). Apparently, most of the problems are close to being solved, starting with a membrane to hold the DNA information. They said that once they've created the life, they're going to let evolution do the hard work and fine tune the organisms for them, since we aren't yet smart enough to do what evolution does, selecting the most robust individuals for species propogation and survival, but the actual creation of basic life, we *are* smart enough for that.

Another interesting thing is that while standard DNA is comprised of four chemicals, they're talking about adding an addition eight to the artificial life's DNA, for twelve total, which would greatly increase the information-storing capability of the DNA. Heck, if we can do that, that exceeds what's already been done, by nature or God or whatever. Maybe our form of life, with four-chemical DNA, was created by some alien race passing through. Maybe *we* are artificial life, also, in other words. I've seen no proof to contradict this. Seen nothing to support it either, but hey.

Nice to see that scientists are actively using evolution as a tool in the lab, even as the less educated members of our society are denying the very existence of same.