This is just a must see.
Scientists have designed a DNA sequence in a computer and managed to create real, self replicating cell, with it’s own email address encoded in the DNA :-)
http://www.ted.com/talks/craig_venter_unveils_synthetic_life.html
Synthetic life unveiled
Roger Johansson Blog 
What a coincidence. I just finished reading “Deus Ex Machina”, a sci-fi book about artificial intelligence, and about a biocompiler that can manufacture and manipulate DNA-structures (of course it goes horribly wrong). Science is catching up with science fiction. :-)
I just looked up information about the book I mentioned, and the English title is “The Deus Machine”, by Pierre Ouellette.