''Can we create new life out of our digital universe?'' asks Craig Venter. And his answer is, yes, and pretty soon. He walks the TED2008 audience through his latest research into ''fourth-generation fuels'' -- biologically created fuels with CO2 as their feedstock. His talk covers the details of creating brand-new chromosomes using digital ...

J. Craig Venter, genome scientist and chairman of the J. Craig Venter Institute, discusses publishing the first diploid genome and his new project of creating synthetic life-forms. The Wall Street Journal's Jacob Goldstein has the interview. UPDATE: Celebrity US scientist Craig Venter has built a synthetic chromosome using chemicals made ...