[link|http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_2122000/2122619.stm|Technology that we can perhaps do without]

Excerpt:

To construct the virus, the researchers say they followed a recipe they downloaded from the internet and used gene sequences from a mail-order supplier.

Having constructed the virus, which appears to be identical to its natural counterpart, the researchers, from the University of New York at Stony Brook, injected it into mice to demonstrate that it was active.

The animals were paralysed and then died.

"The reason we did it was to prove that it can be done and it now is a reality," said Dr Eckard Wimmer, leader of the biomedical research team and co-author of the study published in the journal Science.