Do we need to rethink our understanding of "life"? The renowned geneticist J. Craig Venter consistently makes headlines: after being the first to decipher the human genome, he has now created the first artificial organism. In his book, he vividly and engagingly recounts the setbacks and revolutionary discoveries of his research. At the same time, he demonstrates what current biology is capable of and what it will be able to achieve in the future: producing tailor-made organisms, "beaming" genetic information, programming model cells for computer experiments, developing novel medications, and distributing them around the world at lightning speed. A report from the front lines of science and a fascinating yet thought-provoking insight into the new world of synthetic biology.