I wonder when we'll be able to simulate an organism out of a given sequenced DNA. It may be a little too much to recreate a real living thing, but I think it would be OK to simulate.
Well, the DNA itself probably wouldn't be enough because it doesn't really encode an algorithm or recipe describing how a (multicellular in this context) living organism is constructed from it's genetic information. Instead, the DNA is more like a huge collection of building blocks. But how and what will be constructed from this pile (meaning what will be included in the final system and what won't) that's a completely different matter.
That said, there has been quite an exciting paper published around a year ago describing the first simulation of one life cycle of an in silico Mycoplasma genitalium (the smallest known bacteria). Here's a link to relevant HN discussion:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4272039
For simple organisms, we could probably consider what would happen if we put their DNA in the nucleas, letting it be transcribed by the 'standard' process. This is exactly what viruses do when they inject their DNA/RNA into a foreign cell so they will be cloned.
