Bioengineer Jim Collins, quoted in Nature on the "synthetic cell" story:
Frankly, scientists do not know enough about biology to create life. Although the Human Genome Project has expanded the parts list for cells, there is no instruction manual for putting them together to produce a living cell. It is like trying to assemble an operational jumbo jet from its parts list — impossible. Although some of us in synthetic biology may have delusions of grandeur, our goals are much more modest.
