An Approach to the Synthesis of Life

Ideally, the science of biology should embrace all forms of life. However in practice, it has been restricted to the study of a single instance of life, life on earth. Because biology is based on a sample size of one, we can not know what features of life are peculiar to earth, and what features are general, characteristic of all life. A truly comparative natural biology would require inter-planetary travel, which is Iight years away. The ideal experimental evolutionary biology would involve creation of multiple planetary systems, some essentially identical, others varying by

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