That's very interesting. Awesome article! It was Stanley Miller who first created the amino acids from methane, ammonia, hydrogen, and water vapor in the 1950's. Since then, there have been other great experiments, by such companies as SynBio and Synthetic Genomics and by several universities, including Princeton and UC Berkley. I believe it was Rockefeller University that made the first big step in the US toward artificial life by creating artificial vesicles from fat molecules. The vesicles resembled cells. Before that, scientist had already shown that we can successfully make viruses from chemical components. They proved that by making Polio.
The real problem is going to be the religious opponents of it.Here is a piece from MSNBC on the Pope's recent comments "Pope Benedict XVI has expressed outrage at scientists who "modify the very grammar of life as planned and willed by God." The pope elaborated in an address in 2006: "To take God's place, without being God, is insane arrogance, a risky and dangerous venture." " It will be interesting how religion will deal with life that was not created by God.