US scientist heralds 'artificial life' breakthrough

Celebrity US scientist Craig Venter, seen here in June 2007, has built a synthetic chromosome using chemicals made in a laboratory, Britain's Guardian newspaper reported Saturday.

Venter told Britain's The Guardian newspaper Saturday that he has built a synthetic chromosome using chemicals made in a laboratory, and is set to announce the discovery within weeks, possibly as early as Monday.

However the prospect of engineering artificial life forms is highly controversial and likely to arouse heated debate over the ethics and potential ramifications of such an advance.

The chromosome which Venter and his team has created is known as Mycoplasma laboratorium and, in the final step of the process, will be transplanted into a living cell where it should "take control," effectively becoming a new life form.