Kornberg and Goulian succeeded in transferring from the living cell to the “test tube” chemicals necessary for reproduction of viral DNA. Scientists recognize the accomplishment not as the creation of a living organism, but rather as one enabling a DNA template to make a “copy of itself” in a test tube by a reproductive process normally occurring only within a bacterial cell. This process and the experimental procedures used are described in detail. Up until the present time, the closest approaches to “making of life” have been limited to establishment of proper conditions in which DNA or RNA polynucleotides from viruses or in living cells could manifest their potentialities.