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WASHINGTON - Scientists announced a bold step Thursday in the enduring quest to create artificial life. They've produced a living cell powered by human-made DNA.
While such work can evoke images of Frankenstein-like scientific tinkering, it also is exciting hopes that it could eventually lead to new fuels, better ways to clean polluted water, faster vaccine production and more.
Is it really an artificial life form?
The inventors call it the world's first synthetic cell, although this initial step is more a re-creation of existing life - changing one simple type of bacterium into anoth