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Life at the Speed of Light. From the Double Helix to the Dawn of Digital Life. By J. Craig Venter.

Article in Angewandte Chemie · September 2014 DOI: 10.1002/ange.201405385

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Life at the Speed of Also in this book, Venter does not forget to Light mention how he, as a young corporal in Vietnam, learned “… that the differences between the The biologist J. Craig Venter is animate and inanimate can be subtle”, which most praised for his success in again emphasizes his obsession for disproving the mapping and sequencing genomes, theory of vitalism or any similar way of thinking. It including his own. But he is quite seems that, in spite of great progress in biology different from most contemporary scien- since Darwin, and in spite of the contributions of tists, who are usually chained to the “impact” whole armies of superb scientists, humanity in of their own work and the “ranking” of journals general has not succeeded in shedding the necessity in which they publish, often in a mass-production to give life a transcendental meaning. Therefore, in Life at the Speed of Light From the Double Helix to the manner. Venter does not stop at merely sequencing the second and third chapters of the book, the Dawn of Digital Life. By his own genome and publishing it, he has also J. Craig Venter. Viking, New interesting and important historical contributions York, 2013. 240 pp., hard- broadcast it into space in the form of electro- and milestones that preceded the development of cover, E 19.60.—ISBN 978- 0670025404 magnetic waves. As he is not sure whether there is molecular and synthetic biology are provided. In “… any creature out there capable of making sense fact, this is short history of our understanding of the of the instructions in my genome”,[1] he provides us nature of life. The author sees biology as a science ordinary mortals on Earth with his new book Life at of synthesis, with his own synthetic bacterium the Speed of Light: From the Double Helix to the providing an even stronger demonstration and Dawn of Digital Life. more conclusive evidence against vitalism than This book is certainly worth reading, with a Wçhlers chemical synthesis of urea in the 19th focus on the major advances that have occurred century. In addition, he provides us with an since the time of Bacon, Wçhler, Darwin, and impression of just how far biology has progressed Monod—and on attempts to predict what is likely since the early 1900s. Thus, it has taken only 100 to come next. We have a unique opportunity to years for biology as a descriptive/analytical science share his enthusiasm, and even his obsession with to become a science of synthesis (i.e., synthetic the belief that DNA can be sequenced, digitized, biology), with the driving idea based on the concept transmitted, and then re-synthesized in the labo- of modularity borrowed from software or electrical ratory. We are also driven to the edge of science engineering. fiction by the (still?) highly speculative assumption In Chapters 3, 4, and 5, Venter further spans the that life-forms on Mars should be similar to those arch from panspermia to biological teleportation, on Earth (i.e., in using DNA to store and transmit with his firm belief that in coming decades the genetic information), as Earth and Mars have major contribution that science can give to human- continually exchanged material in the recent geo- ity is to “marry” biology with digital technologies. logical past. Here, Venter also offers mankind his We will enter a post-industrial age of Western skills as a scientist and services as a practical civilization, with the appearance and strong growth entrepreneur: “We can rebuild the Martians in a P4 of biology-based design: with huge computer data- spacesuit lab—that is, a maximum-containment bases and immense amounts of DNA, the digitized lab—instead of risking them crash-landing in the information should enable us to recreate materials, Amazon”.[1] living cells, and organisms. Worldwide, many It is no surprise that such a self-conscious man research groups work at high pressure on technol- already, in the first chapter, begins his book with an ogies to create synthetic organisms, which make it attempt to establish an interesting historical link. possible to produce virtually any imaginable sub- This chapter starts at Trinity College, Dublin, with stance of medical or industrial interest. Living cells Schrçdingers series of lectures in February 1943 (especially microbes) are controlled by a widely (which were later summarized in a very influential known genetic program, a sort of “software of life”. book under the title “What is Life?”), and ends Since we are able to read and interpret it, we should with Venters Trinity College lecture on July 12, also be able to completely understand how life 2012 (which is the basis for Life at the Speed of functions, and subsequently to change it and Light). He spans the arch between Schrçdingers improve it by writing new versions of the “software “aperiodic crystal” and the currently (at least of life”. among synthetic biologists) widespread idea of From the perspective of synthetic biology, living “digital biology”. According to this, a convergence cells function as small programmable production between the sequence code of DNA and digital units. DNA, as software, defines the manufacture of computer code is expected to enable computer- proteins and other macromolecules that can be aided design of the genome, with the possibility of viewed as its hardware, whereas cells are viewed as transmitting it over long distances by electromag- robots and chemical machines (Venter elaborates netic waves and reconstituting it in a rapid synthe- on Turing machines and von Neumann self-repli- sizer. cating automatons). Clearly, in this way, the crea-

&&&& 2014 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2014, 53,2–3 Angewandte Chemie

tion of synthetic cells becomes an important “creating life at the speed of light”, as a part of a technology in itself. In this context, Chapters 6–10 coming industrial revolution where manufacturing also provide a detailed description of ten years of will shift from factories as we know them to a experiments by Venters team that enabled them to domestic manufacturing process, thanks to the rise create an artificial cell by chemically synthesizing a of 3D printer technology. But why do we need to bacterial genome and using it to “boot up” new transmit the genomic information at the speed of cells. Certainly, if a synthetic genome were a light? For finding life beyond Earth! It is difficult to faithful copy of an organisms DNA, it would see any other practical justification beyond that. perform exactly as would the natural genome upon Life at the Speed of Light is a nice essay on transfer into the “empty” recipient cell. But this is science and scientists inner workings, providing an important step in a long history of attempts to behind-the-scenes details of the experimental modify natural organisms. The technical possibil- advances in biological sciences. Venter is certainly ities are largely increased, especially since the very skillful in using analogies to explain technical introduction of direct genetic manipulations in the details comprehensibly to all readers who are 1970s. In this way, the distance between modified outside this field and unfamiliar with the particular and natural organisms is gradually increasing. This scientific terminology and laboratory jargon. This path will ultimately lead to artificial life, which well-written book with cool science is excellent should be so genetically and metabolically distant food for thought to everyone concerned with the from natural life that its survival outside the past, present, and future of the biological sciences laboratory on Earth is not possible; these life and bioengineering. forms would even result in genetic isolation, with a sort of genetic firewall. This promise is now an Nediljko Budisa integral part of synthetic biology, a relatively new Institut fr Chemie field of biological research and engineering. Technische Universitt Berlin (Germany) The last two chapters of the book (11 and 12) are full of speculation about the implications of the DOI: 10.1002/anie.201405385 convergence between the sequence code of DNA and digital computer code, with a (reductionist) [1] Interview with J. C. Venter on 07. November 2013, perception of DNA as “software” or “digital life”. published online: http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/ In addition, the author repeats the mantra of archive/2013/11/features/j-craig-venter-interview.

Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2014, 53, 2 – 3 2014 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim www.angewandte.org &&&&

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