from http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/225523-smallest-yet-genome-reveals-how-little-we-know-about-life-synthetic-or-real

It’s an incredible achievement that’s been decades in the making, and while it might seem like it would be a disappointment that one of our first steps into the field of synthetic biology has made our own ignorance so plain, the reality is that it only shows the incredible room left for advancement. Think genetic and medical engineering are coming up with cool things now? Just wait until they start answering some of the pointed new questions raised by this incredible study.

This week, a team of biologists headed by genomics pioneer Craig Venter published a study in Science that should amaze and excite the world: they built a life-form, and they have no idea how it works