# Humanity Has Created a Third Evolutionary Tree of Life by Juan Enriquez > "In May 2014, a team of molecular biologists led by Floyd Romesberg created a new genetic code, a self-replicating system that codes life forms using chemically modified DNA. This is a BFD; insofar as we know, for 4 billion years all life on this planet replicated using the four known base pairs of DNA (ATCG). Now we can swap in other chemicals. This third evolutionary logic-tree of life would initially be completely human designed-driven and could rapidly diverge from all known life. In theory scientists could begin to breed plants and animals with a very different genetic makeup from that of any other creature on the planet. And these new life forms may be immune to all known viruses and bacteria." > **— Juan Enriquez**, *2016, Edge Annual Question, “What Do You Consider the Most Interesting Recent Scientific News? What Makes It Important?”* ## Sources and Context - **Direct Edge response and surrounding essay:** [Life Diverging…](https://www.edge.org/response-detail/26595) — Edge published this passage in its 2016 Annual Question collection, *What Do You Consider the Most Interesting Recent Scientific News? What Makes It Important?*. The full response preserves the qualifications and argument surrounding this exact extract. - **Complete local collection index:** [[research/Edge 2016 Full Quotation Curation|Edge 2016 Full Quotation Curation]] — retained source-first archive record for the complete yearly response cohort. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Edge|Edge]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] - **Collection:** [[collections/MARS|MARS]] - **Article:** [[articles/The Evolutionary Roots of Silicon Valley|Valley Roots]] - **Article:** [[articles/Digital Darwinism and the Invisible World of Machine Evolution|Digital Darwinism]] - **Article:** [[articles/The Last Migration Will Not Be Human|The Last Migration]] - **Wiki map:** [[wiki/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Synthetic Biology|Synthetic Biology]] - [[wiki/Artificial Heredity|Artificial Heredity]] - [[wiki/Genetic Code|Genetic Code]] - [[wiki/Biological Organization|Biological Organization]] ## Share on Social Media ``` "In May 2014, a team of molecular biologists led by Floyd Romesberg created a new genetic code, a self-replicating system that codes life forms using chemically modified DNA. This is a BFD; insofar as we know, for 4 billion years all life on this planet replicated using the four known base pairs of DNA (ATCG). Now we can swap in other chemicals. This third evolutionary logic-tree of life would initially be completely human designed-driven and could rapidly diverge from all known life. In theory scientists could begin to breed plants and animals with a very different genetic makeup from that of any other creature on the planet. And these new life forms may be immune to all known viruses and bacteria." — Juan Enriquez, 2016, Edge Annual Question, “What Do You Consider the Most Interesting Recent Scientific News? What Makes It Important?” https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-juan-enriquez-third-evolutionary-tree-life ```