Yep, this is pretty much what it seemed like to me as well. Basically more like a Frankenbacteria rather than a completely synthetic DNA sequence. Afterall, the current practical limit on oligonucleotide synthesis is around 200-300 base pairs, so it sounds like they basically just applied the same coupling techniques but to existing chunks of bacterial DNA consisting of 1000 or so base pairs. Even with this I wouldn't be surprised if they had to stop the synthesis, purify what they had, then replicate it via something like PCR until they had enough material to continue the synthesis. So while the scope is quite impressive it's still quite a way from being able to design an organism from the ground up, base pair by base pair.
It's more accurate to say that it contains large sequences that we haven't yet identified a purpose to. One can't say they serve no purpose until those sequences have been yanked out and a fully functional person still grows from the remaining DNA (and putting aside the ethical considerations of such an experiment, my own expectation would be that if this was carried out it would be found that those sequences actually turn out to be pretty critical to getting a functional human).

Actually no, that is not what they did. They designed an entire genome on a computer (granted, it is based on the bacteria that "donated" its cell structure), then created the entire sequence of DNA through chemical processes and a new "linking" process they have spent the last 15 years working on developing. All of the DNA in the new bacteria is completely manufactured, none of it is replicated from existing DNA or are pieces of existing DNA.

I wouldn't call this artificial life, artificial genome seems more like it. Though it is a feat that they could make a 10 million base pair sequence :)

Have you read Michael Crichton's novel, Next? BECAUSE YOU SHOULD.
Evveryone should.

Medical & environmental applications are pretty significant. Airborne bacteria that can eat pollution, stuff that can clean up oil spills, fixing genetic disorders and the like.
Of course it won't take too long before some psychotic twat decides to try and make a programmable bioweapon and before you know it, they'll be dropping bombs that release a toxin to make everyone behave like paris hilton

Alright, I just tracked down and read that actual Science paper, and it seems my initial take on this based on the CNN article was wrong. They did indeed create a fully synthetic DNA sequence. Basically it seems the DNA sequence itself is based almost entirely upon the natural sequence of M. mycoides, with the exception that several parts of the sequence known to be highly tolerant to changes were replaced with novel designed sequences to act as watermarks. 1080 base pair pieces were assembled using traditional oligonucleotide synthetic methods (it seems the state in the art for this field has advanced pretty rapidly, and has a much higher practical limit than last I heard).
From there the group then applied the methodology they developed, which involved recombining the shorter sequences in yeast and E. coli cells then harvesting the plasmids containing the sequences and digesting them to isolate the sequences of interest. This process was punctuated by using PCR to replicate the sequences so enough material could be obtained to continue the process. Note that I'm probably leaving quite a bit of key information out here, as a lot of this is well outside my own field of expertise (organic synthesis). Overall a very impressive accomplishment, that really does seem to be a significant advancement in the state of the art for synthesizing DNA sequences large enough to code for a complete organism.

The fact the DNA is all synthetic is the impressive part of the experiment. Especially for an entire genome (even if it is just a modified pre-existing genomic sequence). I'd hazard a guess they've raised the practial limit for synthesis past 200-300bp. I remember designing 50bp sequences and having my boss freak out over how expensive it would be, lol.
I'm kinda curious about the late stage assembling. I've never PCR'd anything over 4kb and was under the impression as size increased, successful replication became much rarer. Only thing that comes to my mind is taking the larger segments, add them to a plasmid, and transforming them into E.coli to farm.
edit - hey you posted while i was writing mine. Thx for the link to the article! Also, excellent explanation of their process. I'm surprised the limit has increased so much in the last few years.

ME PLAY GODS.
ME GO TOO FAR!

Wonder if the creator of the Sims wanted to make a God game....

That'd be too controversial.

I'm not sure if this counts but with all the talk about patenting DNA sequences it made me remeber the manga Gunnm (a.k.a. Battle Angel Alita). In the most recent story arc one of the solar system's superpowers is the Genome Kingdom or Republic of Venus that makes a business of patenting their genome creations that serve different purposes like being food, serving as furniture, working as biological space stations, or weapons of mass destruction. The inhabitants of Venus are heavily modified humans that resemble Humpty Dumpty and they like to eat a non-sentient biologically engineered species that are basically like small human children.

....BWAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Awesomeness in so many ways.

All of a sudden, i watn to reinstall Spore and play around with the creature creator again.

Finally... I begun doubting whether 2012 is really going to be the end of the world. Now I can be optimistic again!