| In May 2019, researchers, in a milestone effort, reported the creation of a new [[Synthetic biology#Synthetic life|synthetic]] (possibly [[Artificial life#Biochemical-based ("wet")|artificial]]) form of [[wikt:viability|viable]] [[life]], a variant of the [[bacteria]] ''[[Escherichia coli]]'', by reducing the natural number of 64 [[codon]]s in the bacterial [[genome]] to 59 codons instead, in order to encode 20 [[amino acid]]s.<ref name="NYT-20190515">{{cite news |last=Zimmer |first=Carl |authorlink=Carl Zimmer |title=Scientists Created Bacteria With a Synthetic Genome. Is This Artificial Life? - In a milestone for synthetic biology, colonies of E. coli thrive with DNA constructed from scratch by humans, not nature. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/15/science/synthetic-genome-bacteria.html |date=15 May 2019 |work=[[The New York Times]] |accessdate=16 May 2019 }}</ref><ref name="NAT-20190515">{{cite journal |author=Fredens, Julius |display-authors=et al. |title=Total synthesis of Escherichia coli with a recoded genome |date=15 May 2019 |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |doi=10.1038/s41586-019-1192-5 |pmid=31092918 |pmc=7039709 |volume=569 |issue=7757 |pages=514–518 }}</ref> | | In May 2019, researchers, in a milestone effort, reported the creation of a new [[Synthetic biology#Synthetic life|synthetic]] (possibly [[Artificial life#Biochemical-based ("wet")|artificial]]) form of [[wikt:viability|viable]] [[life]], a variant of the [[bacteria]] ''[[Escherichia coli]]'', by reducing the natural number of 64 [[codon]]s in the bacterial [[genome]] to 59 codons instead, in order to encode 20 [[amino acid]]s.<ref name="NYT-20190515">{{cite news |last=Zimmer |first=Carl |authorlink=Carl Zimmer |title=Scientists Created Bacteria With a Synthetic Genome. Is This Artificial Life? - In a milestone for synthetic biology, colonies of E. coli thrive with DNA constructed from scratch by humans, not nature. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/15/science/synthetic-genome-bacteria.html |date=15 May 2019 |work=[[The New York Times]] |accessdate=16 May 2019 }}</ref><ref name="NAT-20190515">{{cite journal |author=Fredens, Julius |display-authors=et al. |title=Total synthesis of Escherichia coli with a recoded genome |date=15 May 2019 |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |doi=10.1038/s41586-019-1192-5 |pmid=31092918 |pmc=7039709 |volume=569 |issue=7757 |pages=514–518 }}</ref> |