As you’ll probably already know, the big news this week is Craig Venter’s work on Synthia. Some say he’s created life; I think he’s merely plagiarised it (albeit in an admittedly very complicated way). Some of the best pieces on the work are as follows: Nature has eight glowing reactions; one of the scientists who worked on the project took questions from Reddit readers; the New York Times has a more reserved take; Ars Technica decides to focus on the paper’s technical achievements; Mark Henderson has a measured commentary in the Times; and Carl Zimmer argues that “it is life, ultimately, that recreates life from life”. The Daily Mail wrote some guff about I Am