In a move that’s been hailed as one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs of the century, a group of scientists have created a synthetic bacterium that looks like Craig Venter.

The team artificially synthesised a genome in the lab and inserted it into an empty bacterial cell, which promptly remodelled its outer wall into a picture of Venter’s face.

“Before today, there had only been one genome in the world with the right sequence of nucleotides to encode my face,” said Venter, speaking from his secret volcano lair. “Now there are two, and I can’t help but think that things have greatly improved.

“Of course, the ultimate goal is to build a creature with 100 heads, not unlike the mythical hydra, but where every head is my head.

“Or, er, something about biofuels,” he added.

Other scientists warned that the ethical debates sparked by the discovery had only begun. Andrew McQueen from New York University said, “Imagine going for a walk in the park only to find that every bird in the trees has Craig’s face on it and they’re all looking at you.”

“They’re not smiling either,” he added before curling up on the floor and crying quietly.

Meanwhile, it transpired that Venter has coded a line from a James Joyce novel into his synthetic genome, a move that drew condemnation from America’s creationist groups, who didn’t understand what a novel was.

(For actual takes on this story, see a straight take in the Times, eight glowing reactions in Nature, a more reserved take in the New York Times that more closely mirrors my own feelings, and an excellent explanation of the new paper’s technical achievements, which are indeed substantial.)

If you don’t read Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, then you are a pinko commie^*. Or a socialist. I dunno; I get these political epithets mixed up.

Anyway, today’s was great, as usual. But I wonder who this Professor Thorne is…?

When Walgreens, the nation’s biggest drugstore chain, announced last week that personal genomics tests would join diet soda and pregnancy tests in its aisles, we gave some reasons that might not be such a great thing. We weren’t the only ones concerned: The Food and Drug Administration said it would investigate the tests, and now Congress is involved. It opened an investigation into personal genomics tests yesterday.

House Committee on Energy and Commerce, chaired by Rep. Henry A. Waxman, just sent out official requests for information to the big three personal genomics companies—23andMe, Navigenics, and Pathway Genomics.

Waxman’s interest was piqued by the move—quickly rescinded last week after the FDA objected—by Pathway to sell its DNA-collection kits in Walgreen’s drugstores. The letters ask the companies for information on, among other things, how they analyze test results to determine someone’s risk for any disease or drug response, and how accurately the DNA tests identify genetic risks [Newsweek].

That’s important because while sequencing someone’s genome is a rather objective task, interpreting it is not. The companies have been loath to divulge how they do the latter part, which is what Waxman’s committee wants to know. (Check out the DISCOVER Magazine feature in which our reporter has her DNA analyzed by three different companies.)

Walgreens has now delayed the introduction the Pathway tests onto its shelves. So has CVS, which planned to offer the same product beginning in August.

The kits would allow buyers to send a saliva sample to Pathway, based in San Diego, for analysis. The company’s testing fee would be based on the information the consumer wants. Pathway says its testing allows buyers to learn whether they are at risk for a range of diseases, including breast cancer and Alzheimer’s. But questions have been raised about whether most consumers would be able to interpret the results [UPI].

Meanwhile, across the country from Washington D.C., another personal DNA testing argument is in full force. On Tuesday we brought you the story that UC Berkeley will ask incoming freshmen this fall to give a DNA sample, which the university says it will use for simple tests to determine alcohol metabolism or lactose intolerance. The program is voluntary and anonymous, but the Center for Genetics and Society, also of Berkeley, cited the Walgreens case as more reason to argue the university ought to stop the program.

Related Content:
DISCOVER: How Much Can You Learn from a Home DNA Test?
80beats: 5 Reasons Walgreens Selling Personal DNA Tests Might Be a Bad Idea
80beats: No Gattaca Here: Genetic Anti-Discrimination Law Goes Into Effect
Discoblog: Welcome, UC Berkeley Freshmen! Now Hand Over Your DNA Samples

Image: Pathway Genomics

Posted on HubbleSite today is the story of WASP-12b, a Hot Jupiter discovered April 1, 2008.  WASP-12b has a blistering orbital rate of just over 26 hours.  From HubbleSite:

May 20, 2010: “The Star That Ate My Planet” may sound like a B-grade science fiction movie title, but this is really happening 600 light-years away. Like a moth in a candle flame, a doomed Jupiter-sized planet has moved so close to its sunlike parent star that it is spilling its atmosphere onto the star. This happens because the planet gets so hot that its atmosphere puffs up to the point where the star’s gravity pulls it in. The planet will likely be completely devoured in 10 million years. Observations by Hubble’s new Cosmic Origins Spectrograph measured a variety of elements in the planet’s bloated atmosphere as the planet passed in front of its star. The planet, called WASP-12b, is the hottest known world ever discovered, with an atmosphere seething at 2,800 degrees Fahrenheit.

For the full story, visit HubbleSite. An interesting story about the Milky Way’s hottest known planet.

Craig Venter has taken yet another step towards his goal of creating synthetic life forms. He’s synthesized the genome of a microbe and then implanted that piece of DNA into a DNA-free cell of another species. And that…that thing…can grow and divide. It’s hard to say whether this is “life from scratch,” because the boundary between such a thing and ordinary life (and non-life) is actually blurry. For example, you could say that this is still a nature hybrid, because its DNA is based on the sequence of an existing species of bacteria. If Venter made up a sequence from scratch, maybe we’d have crossed to a new terrain.

Anyway–this news just hit the wires thanks to an embargo break, so I don’t have time to go into more detail. Joe Palca at NPR has posted his article on the subject. For background, please check out these stories I’ve written about this general area of research:

Tinker, Tailor: Can Venter Stitch Together A Genome From Scratch?

The Meaning of Life

The Six Most Important Experiments In The World

Artificial Life? Old News.

The High-Tech Search For A Cleaner Biofuel Alternative

On the Origin of Tomorrow

My Bloggingheads interview with Venter

Update: The scientists are in a live press conference that started a 1 pm.