Engineering life

Imagine designing bacteria that can do whatever you want - from cleaning up oil spills to churning out the latest cancer treatments - ordering the biological parts online and building it in a couple of weeks. This is no longer the stuff of dreams, but the reality of synthetic biology. Plus, tracing European genes, how parasites manipulate our immune systems, I take part in a research project to find out if sociability is in my genes, and our gene of the month is looking for wedded bliss.