A fascinating review of Craig Venter’s autobiography. Naturally I’m sympathetic to this guy who looks like he values scientific creativity and achievement above other things, and will improvise through the miasma of institutions that exist to further science to get what he’s after. But what would I know? It’s a pretty interesting read though, so have a look if you get the time.
Club Troppo
Fearlessly dispensing political, legal and economic analysis (and some whimsy) since 2002
I just read this review this morning in the print version – he sounded to me like he valued yachts pretty highly too! Seriously, the review was a terrific piece of writing – I appreciated the historical perspective on what it used to mean and what it means now to have a high-achieving scientific career.
Yes, well he values yachts. I don’t have a problem with that – even though I can take them or leave them. I have even less problem with it if he also values science, which it seems fairly clear that he does.
For those who worry about genetically modified foods do not view http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/227 where he describes what he is doing with “creating life”. However, for those of us who have a more sanguine view of such things the idea of creating bugs to gobble up CO2 has a lot of merit.