to guide us through this interview, we have radio lab's robert krulwich.pplause] >> we are in kind of an unusual technical situation because craig venter is in san diego, supposed to be here is a little with something. so let's see, can you hear me? he is ill with something akin to mutinous. he's looking pretty good. can you hear me at all robert it'd be scary looking, he's not he's just ill. [laughter] we have a number of backup systems i suppose that we should employ. if worse comes to worse i will tell you what he would have done if i could control him like a puppet. [laughter] all right. that might mean he's hearing me. can you hear me? >> i can. >> maybe we lost you. so, what's wrong with you? [laughter] >> i didn't want to leave for washington, d.c.. it would have made montezuma proud of. [laughter] let me quickly ask you because we don't have a lot of time, but i guess that you have a whole list of things that you are doing. but the one that intrigues me the most is this notion of a minimal cell. first can you explain what a minimal cell is? >> i've