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"Inspiring" (Telegraph) and "brimming with the excitement of discovery" (Siddhartha Mukherjee), a story of sailing the high seas in search of the ocean's microbiome and the genetic code of life. "A lively account of a groundbreaking exploration of the microbiome of the Earth's waters . . . Important and adventurous science on the high seas." --Kirkus Reviews Upon completing his historic work on the Human Genome Project, J. Craig Venter set out to sequence the genetic code of all life on Earth. Boarding the research vessel
Sorcerer II, Venter traveled over 65,000 miles around the globe to sample ocean water and the microscopic life therein. From plant-like bacteria that get their energy from the sun to microbes whose genes shield them from ultraviolet light, his findings revealed the unimaginable complexity and diversity of evolution as well as the toll of human activity on the microbiome that nourishes life.
In the face of unprecedented climate change, Venter and science writer David Ewing Duncan show how we can harness the microbial genome to develop alternative sources of energy, food, and medicine. A captivating story of exploration and discovery,
The Voyage of Sorcerer II restores microbes to their rightful places as crucial partners in our evolutionary past and guides to our future.
About the author
J. Craig Venter is founder, Chairman, and CEO of the J. Craig Venter Institute, a nonprofit research organization. He is cofounder of the biotechnology companies Celera, Synthetic Genomics, and Human Longevity, Inc. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, he has received numerous public honors and scientific awards, including the US National Medal of Science.David Ewing Duncan is an award-winning science journalist. A contributor to Wired, Vanity Fair, the New York Times, National Public Radio, ABC News, The Atlantic, and National Geographic and the bestselling author of eleven books published in twenty-one languages, he was founding director of the Center for Life Science Policy at the University of California, Berkeley.
