Playing God

Creating Synthetic Life

Discovery Science, Tuesday, 8 pm

Until this year, the creation of life in a lab seemed limited to the realms of weird fiction written by the likes of HP Lovecraft and Mary Shelley. Re-animating corpses or creating an entirely new being from cadaver parts excavated from a graveyard a la Dr Frankenstein — these imaginings provided ample scope for horrified debates about the implication of man playing God. It’s a relief then, when the discussion moves away from fantastic fictional realms and gets down to nitty-gritties of DNA and molecules.

In May this year, a group of American geneticists made waves with the news that they had finally created life in a petri dish. Humans had finally achieved what had once seemed impossible—playing God. Creating Synthetic Life documents this long, expensive and at times frustrating journey. The research team, headed by Dr J Craig Venter, provides a step-by-step explanation of how it managed create synthetic life in the lab. And as they stress again and again, it was no easy feat.

The prominent members of the research team explain the various stages of the project. Venter, whose brainchild the project is, holds the whole documentary together, while his associates Hamilton Smith, Clyde Hutchinson, John Glass and Dan Gibson make appearances to explain their roles. The enthusiasm with which they all narrate their exciting journey together is infectious-despite the white lab coats and grizzled beards, they seem almost like school boys discovering the infinite possibilities of a chemistry lab set.

The wealth of detail and passion poured into the making of this documentary is commendable. You may not know, or care, about Mycoplasma mycoides, but by the end of the show, you’ll know its significance to the history of bio-sciences. It’s officially the first living organism to be recreated in a lab and that is a mighty big step for humankind.

Dr Venter and his associates take great pains to repeat over and over again that they realise what their discovery can mean in the wrong hands. All the possibilities-accidental leakage, deliberate creation of harmful bacteria and mutations are mentioned. We’re informed that the American government keeps a close watch over what findings are published in scientific journals and the team also consults a bio-ethicist to discuss the implications of its projects, but the viewer rarely gets a sense of how significant the debate is. A simple Google search will show what a controversial figure Venter is and how his obsession with creating synthetic life has split the scientific world into two camps. However, while watching the documentary, the viewer fails to get a sense of it.

Verdict:

Venter’s project was inadequately debated in the Indian media, so this is a good opportunity for viewers to know more about this momentous development in human history.