brave new world (with so many goodly creatures)

It looks like claims regarding the creation of a fully synthetic single-celled organism were a bit exaggerated--such lines of genetic information had been transfigured in this way before. That watermarks (think Getty Images) of this life-form's creators were inserted in the DNA, whereas other DNA considered to be there just along for the ride was culled out by the laboratory. I would have thought that that was Google's latest non-malevolent project--tags and trending for heredity. It's not nice to pwn Mother Nature. I wonder if mankind is coming to a sort of technological rift, that's made a common fate for advancing societies, when man will choose to pursue better living through such Frankenstein methods, tinkering with nature, rather than pursuing research in the other scientific disciplines, like physics. Though I am happy for it, it is a wonder to me that physics in the form of CERN or other big projects garners any support or interest. Physics, at least thus far, does not seem to have much of a profit-motive. Now the space shuttle has been replaced by a robotic spy space plane, and there is bio-engineered food crops, botox injections, microbes to sop up oil spills, and stem cells that can be coaxed and differentiated into bone marrow, cartilage or a fully formed family-friendly franchise restaurant. What opportunities does progress lose out on by investing in ones sort of alchemy rather than the other?