Can Life Be Mimicked in Silicon?

In a step toward sophisticated artificial cells, scientists have engineered a silicon chip that can produce proteins from DNA, the most basic function of life. The system, though relatively simple, suggests a path to mimicking life with partly manufactured components, says Roy Bar-Ziv, a materials scientist at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, who is leading the work. Cells constantly create proteins from instructions coded in DNA sequences. How much of each protein...

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