Scientists create artificial life in laboratory - Times Online

Dr Venter, who has been working on synthetic life for a decade, told The Times: “It is our final triumph. This is the first synthetic cell. It’s the first time we have started with information in a computer, used four bottles of chemicals to write up a million letters of DNA software, and actually got it to boot up in a living organism.
They took raw computer data and used it to precisely engineer a working genetic code that they inserted into bacteria that had its genetic material removed, and it lived. If we can map out the genes of every single seed/plant type, the need to keep permanent, long-term storage units evaporates.