ARTIFICIAL VIRUSES

BY MONICA DOBIEAMERICAN scientists have successfully developed a method of quickly creating synthetic viruses that could be tailor-made to eat away at harmful pollutants or be able to create hydrogen fuel in an environmentally sound way.A virus called phi-174 - only the second virus to be created synthetically - has been manufactured by a team, which wants to magnify the size of such organisms so that they carry enough microbes to eliminate radioactive waste, clean up oil spills and sequester carbon dioxide in the environment.Genome pioneer Craig Venter and his ...


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