Quote Originally Posted by The12lber
Not true, they're making artificial life in the lab from the first chromosome up. Totally artificial manmade organisms.
That's not completely true. Venter is not starting with raw nucleotides, he is starting with DNA strands which his team is combining. They've been working on it for years, and always saying that they are "almost there". It will be interesting if they get the strands to combine properly.
Also, they are using an already living bacterial cell for their project, so while it could possibly create a new DNA strand and technically a new species, that does not necessarily mean that they have created life itself. However, it is a very big and important step in the direction of such.

I am assuming that you are referring to this project, as it is the only one that I know of that has a legitimate chance of success - and you did not specify once by name.