We have just created the synthetic genome and inserted into cell, where it works. In short, artificial life. To be sure, it’s not “making a cell from scratch” since word is that God told the researchers, “Make your own damn proteins, Golgi complexes and mitochondria.” But still the human race just crossed a Rubicon vastly more significant than nuclear fission or landing on the moon.
And most people don’t know about it.
We are now heading into the What Could It Hurt? Phase of the biosciences.