Along with the Venter paper, Nature published eight commentaries on the significance of the work. The “real” scientists were aware of the incremental nature of the work, and questioned whether the Venter group had created a genuine “synthetic cell,” while the social scientists tended to exaggerate the implications of the work.
在文特尔发表的研究论文末尾，《自然》发表了八篇称赞该研究重要性的评论。其实行内人早就知道这一研究仅是对前人成果的一种改进，并质疑文特尔团队是否真的创造了一个“合成细胞”。不过，社会科学家则倾向于夸大这一成果的弦外之音。