http://www.presseurop.eu/en The best of the European press in 10 languages enhttp://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/news-brief/256311-and-man-became-god“And man made life,” leads The Economist, following the announcement on 20 May, in the pages of Science, that genetic entrepreneur Craig Venter and his team have created the first ever synthetic life form. The new organism is based on a bacterium that causes mastitis in goats, but at its core is a synthetic genome entirely constructed from “off-the-shelf laboratory chemicals”. “In the end”, the London weekly quips, “there was no castle, no thunderstorm and definitely no hunchbacked cackling lab assistant.” Frankenstein jokes aside, a new era for humanity has begun, it now being possible “to conceive of a world in which new bacteria (and eventually, new animals and plants) are designed on a computer and then grown to order.” Practical applications could include bacteria that produce biofuels, soak up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and even manufacture vaccines. Whatever our reservations that we are tampering with the creation, “for good or ill it is here”, the Economist leader notes. “Creating life is no longer the prerogative of gods.”

(News in brief)]]>Fri, 21 May 2010 12:39:52 +0100256311 http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/news-brief/169381-portugals-mothers-make-bank-successOne year after PM Jose Sócrates announced the creation of Lusocord, a public stem cell bank, Portuguese daily Público hails its success, topping 1400 donations of umbilical cord blood since the beginning of 2009. Cord blood is collected because it contains stem cells, which can be used in the treatment of blood diseases and genetic disorders. By the 2010, end the Centro de Histocompatibilidade do Norte (Northern Histocompatibility Center) – the bank’s Oporto-based administrator- hopes to reach three thousand donations. By the end of this semester, Lusocord storage will be used throughout the world for research, transplants and to treat children suffering from leukemia. The continued success of this bank relies only one thing only – the generosity of the nation’s pregnant women, the Lisbon daily notes.

(News in brief)]]>Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:27:48 +0100169381