"We're kind of making a new machine," said Dan Tarjan, a senior majoring in biology at University of Virginia.

The live machine is to be entered in The International Genetically Engineered Machine competition, which will be held Halloween weekend at MIT. The annual competition is built on the premise that life can be broken down into a warehouse of off-the-shelf, interchangeable parts and reassembled into creatures that have never existed.

Over 100 teams will use synthetic biology (similar to genetic engineering) to show that DNA building blocks (BioBricks) don’t have to come from nature and can be designed and built from standardized parts that behave predictably.

The hope is that these tiny factories will produce clean biofuels, powerful new medicines and environmental pollution sponges.

Good luck to all contestants.

Evolution is basically just a tool, after all. Why not make use of it?