Perched on a cliff in San Diego, California, reminiscent of Mary
Shelley’s novel in which a scientist, Dr. Frankenstein, creates
artificial life, Dr. Gerald Joyce can be considered his modern
day counterpart. Dr. Joyce is also trying to create life, but in
a thimble-size test tube, rather than from human body parts.
Although these are bizarre things, scientists and sci-fi fans
have pondered this possibility for ages. Some people even think
we will someday encounter an alien from another world, but Dr.
Joyce is close to creating an alien life in the test tube. It’s
debatable among scientists as to what constitutes life, but some
may say Dr. Joyce already created a life form in 2007. In 2007,
Dr. Joyce and his assistant, a graduate student, Tracey Lincoln,
who is now a researcher at the University of Massachusetts
Medical School, created a “molecule” in a test tube that could
reproduce, and evolve by itself. According to Dr. Joyce, it
“swapped jerry-built genes “in a test tube as long as it was fed
the right “e