Sometimes the world shifts on its axis, and it did for me at the Royal Academy of Engineering's Global Grand Challenges Summit this spring. I was invited to meet the press beforehand, with a quiet American called Craig. I spoke for a moment or two about my hopes for the education of the next generation of engineers, and why design is the stuff of life. Then came the first question for Craig. "Dr Venter, is it true that you have now made fully artificial life in your laboratory?" Great big blistering barnacles, did they really ask him that? Who is this bloke? And 1o, my world tilted, whoosh. "Not yet", said Craig quietly, "but you'll be the first to know when we do".
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