Synthetic biology

Gallery: The most beautiful bacteria you’ll ever see

Synthetic biologist Tal Danino manipulates microorganisms in his lab to create eye-catching, colorful patterns. Here’s a look at the process he uses to turn “Oh, yuck” into “Oh,...

The ongoing quest to build life from scratch

A synthetic biologist has created artificial cells that can “talk” to natural cells — but are they really alive? How does one go about building a living cell from non-living com...

What if we could brew painkillers?

From aspirin to anticoagulants, penicillin to cancer treatments, some of our most important human medicines come from plants. But extracting the medicinal compounds from plants ...