Life at the Speed of Light: From the Double Helix to the Dawn of Digital Life - Hardcover

Venter, J. Craig

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670025402 ISBN 13: 9780670025404

Publisher: Viking Pr, 2013

Synopsis

The renowned scientist and author of A Life Decoded examines the creation of life in the new field of synthetic genomics

In 2010, scientists led by J. Craig Venter became the first to successfully create ?synthetic life”?putting humankind at the threshold of the most important and exciting phase of biological research, one that will enable us to actually write the genetic code for designing new species to help us adapt and evolve for long-term survival. The science of synthetic genomics will have a profound impact on human existence, including chemical and energy generation, health, clean water and food production, environmental control, and possibly even our evolution.

In Life at the Speed of Light, Venter presents a fascinating and authoritative study of this emerging field from the inside?detailing its origins, current challenges and controversies, and projected effects on our lives. This scientific frontier provides an opportunity to ponder anew the age-old question ?What is life?” and examine what we really mean by ?playing God.” Life at the Speed of Light is a landmark work, written by a visionary at the dawn of a new era of biological engineering.

About this title

Product Description:

Title: Life at the Speed of Light( From the Double Helix to the Dawn of Digital Life) <>Binding: Hardcover <>Author: J.CraigVenter <>Publisher: VikingBooks

Review:

"When scientists finally succeed in transmitting to another galaxy the digital instructions for building a living organism, they will rely on science that Venter has pioneered.... Readers will thank Venter for an insider's perspective on epoch-making science."
Booklist

"Craig Venter is a singular individual... at once inheritor of molecular biology's prior triumphs and the wellspring of its future...He compellingly depicts his diverse research as a concerted effort to shuttle biology between the material and the digital worlds...a gripping tale and welcome antidote to dry materials and methods sections that make such sagas feel disembodied and inevitable."
Science

"[A] remarkable book."
Scientific American

"A fascinating glimpse at a scientific frontier--not always easily understandable but well worth the effort."
Kirkus Reviews

"A great read."
Ricki Lewis, PhD, PLOS.org

"One of the world's leading scientists delivers a history of molecular biology and its many ramifications depicted as it has been and will continue to be, a creator of the golden age of modern biology. His style is that of a dispatch from the front, urgent and engaged, as only a participant could write it, and the best of its genre since James D. Watson's The Double Helix."
Edward O. Wilson, University Research Professor Emeritus, Harvard University

"Humanity is entering a period of radical transformation and one reason is due to Craig Venter's research in creating new life forms based on computer designed synthetic DNA. Life at the Speed of Light is his beautifully written, powerful and persuasive story on how DNA information and computers will blend in the coming singularity, that watershed in the evolution of humanity beyond which amazing new possibilities for life, society and everything we care about will emerge."
Ray Kurzweil, author of How to Create a Mind and The Singularity Is Near

About this edition

• Publisher: Viking Pr
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0670025402
• ISBN 13: 9780670025404
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224