Publisher Description
Upon completing his historic work on the Human Genome Project, J. Craig Venter declared that he would sequence the genetic code of all life on earth. Thus began a fifteen-year quest to collect DNA from the world's oldest and most abundant form of life: microbes. Boarding the Sorcerer II, a 100-foot sailboat turned research vessel, Venter traveled over 65,000 miles around the globe to sample ocean water and the microscopic life within.
In The Voyage of Sorcerer II, Venter and science writer David Ewing Duncan tell the remarkable story of these expeditions and of the momentous discoveries that ensued—of plant-like bacteria that get their energy from the sun, proteins that metabolize vast amounts of hydrogen, and microbes whose genes shield them from ultraviolet light. The result was a massive library of millions of unknown genes, thousands of unseen protein families, and new lineages of bacteria that revealed the unimaginable complexity of life on earth. Yet despite this exquisite diversity, Venter encountered sobering reminders of how human activity is disturbing the delicate microbial ecosystem that nurtures life on earth. In the face of unprecedented climate change, Venter and Duncan show how we can harness the microbial genome to develop alternative sources of energy, food, and medicine that might ultimately avert our destruction.
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Important and adventurous science on the high seas.
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Kirkus Reviews
About the Authors
J. Craig Venter is one of the leading scientists of the twenty-first century and president of the J. Craig Venter Institute. A pioneer in the world of genomic research, he is recognized for his visionary contributions to the field. In February 2001, Venter published the completed sequence of the human genome. He lives near Washington, DC.
David Ewing Duncan is an award-winning author, best known for his bestselling book,
Experimental Man. He is the CEO and curator of Arc Fusion and a health strategist in residence for IDEO. He is a columnist for the Daily Beast and the chief correspondent for NPR Talk's
Biotech Nation. David writes for
The New York Times,
The Atlantic,
Fortune,
Wired,
National Geographic,
Discover, and
Outside, among other publications. He is a former commentator for NPR's
Morning Edition, a special correspondent and producer for ABC's
Nightline and
20/20, a former producer for the Discovery Channel, and a correspondent for NOVA's
ScienceNow. David's work has won numerous awards, including Magazine Story of the Year from AAAS, and has been nominated twice for a National Magazine Award. He serves on a committee for the National Academy of Sciences. David lives in San Francisco, where he is a member of the Grotto, a writers society.
About Paul Brion
Paul Brion has a passion for storytelling. He believes that audiobooks—our most current form of the oral tradition—are the purest of the interactive and co-creative arts. An autodidact with eclectic interests, he enjoys learning about a wide variety of subjects, as he has an avaricious hunger for knowledge.