It was my privilege to hear Dr Craig Venter speak this week. He is best known as the man you cracked the sequencing of the Genome. On reading more about him in wikipedia, Craig was a average guy who scored C and D's at school. His contribution to society is incredible: as he told his story about how they approached this task - he told his life's work in an hour. But below the blood, sweat and tears was both brillance and luck!
His work is a tricky combination of science and IT - his team does 1 million experiments each day using a
(in silica) approach which in layman's terms translates into: "on the computer".
Dr Venter also sequenced animals and moved onto sampling water from the core of the earth and has circumnavigated the world to sample water. He discovered millions of viruses and other bacteria - we have been accustomed to regard these as 'evil'. Indeed they perhaps provide the secret to our survival as a species.
The most staggering piece for me was when he discussed the engineered cell that takes carbon dioxide and converts this into methane. That discovery has incredible ramifications for all of us, if this can be commercialised and create a truly renewal energy source.
What an inspiring man........hearing him talk reminded me that we never really know what is possible!
Thanks Craig for restoring my belief in humanity.
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