Craig Venter wanted to do this. But he died earlier this year.

NYT piece with visualizations:

This Cell Feeds, Grows and Reproduces. and It's Manmade

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/07/01/science/spudc... (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48747038)

I love exciting scientific news like this

> 'Unlike living natural cells... the synthetic SpudCell can't survive and replicate without feeding on external food and ribosomes'

So in the future when there's a lab leak from the Wuhan Institute of SpudCellular Biology, the SpudCells will devour all biological life they can in order to harvest the building blocks they need. "Just social distance and wear two masks," the Surgeon General tells the CNN correspondent, as he disolves to red gray goo on live TV.

Reminded me of Maturana and his autopoiesis.

I wonder what animal or plant would grow out of that...

This is literally how Cell was made. Cell Saga, here we go.

For some reason, research like this has a much more apocalyptic feeling than it has in the past.

So what is being described here? Scratch-built self-replicating nano-machines inspired by biology? That itself seems significant.

"If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe"