Creating a new gene in a single day could soon be possible, thanks to a new technique that mimics the way the body copies its own DNA. Though the technology needs to clear a few more hurdles, it could one day let researchers speedily rewrite microbe genes, enabling them to synthesize new medicines and fuels on the fly.

“It’s the future,” says George Church, a geneticist at Harvard University who has pioneered numerous technologies to read and write DNA for synthetic biology. “This is going to be enormous.”

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