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Another Famous, Competitive Scientist: BBC Interview with Craig Venter

Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
[Wish Susan Watts had said a little more about the 1930s BBC yacht she
and Venter were on for the interview. There's a photo of Venter in
front of what looks like his own sailboat at the URL below. But the
BBC 1930s yacht sounds really interesting. So does Venter, actually,
and not at all icy or inhuman. And not unsympathetic. It IS sad to
see Watson self-destruct. Most really bright creative people, like
Venter, don't suffer fools gladly. Doesn't make them icy.  Watts
discusses Venter's company website but BBC failed to give the URL.
It's http://www.syntheticgenomics.com/index.htm  It's a very appealing,
clean, well-designed site.  -NY Transfer]



BBC - Oct 23, 2007
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/7057224.stm

Scientist plotting genetic revolution

By Susan Watts
BBC Newsnight, science editor

He is perhaps the world's most controversial scientist. Dr Craig Venter
is the only person to have published his entire genetic code -- and
famous for the ferocious race to get there first.

He used faster, some say "dirtier" science, and private money, to win
that race -- against a lumbering scientific establishment.

This is the third time I've met, and interviewed, Craig Venter. If I'd
been asked to sum him up in one word after our earlier meetings it would
have been "icy".

This time round he seems a little more human. We meet in the relaxed
Sunday afternoon tranquillity of London's St Katherine's Docks. He's
grown back his beard.

We sit down for the interview in a 1930s BBC-budget yacht. It's not
quite what Venter's used to, though he warms to the idea that it's
antique, and has a history.

"There's no such thing as a bad boat", he says. Not only is Venter one
of the world's most well-known, and most controversial, of scientists -
but he's a keen sailor too (He talks in the book about how he once
raced Robin Knox-Johnston - and won).

As we're about to start the interview, Craig draws out a yellow
inhaler...

"So do you really have asthma?" I ask, having read in his book that it
was of the genetic susceptibilities indicated in his complete genome
sequence. "Oh yes, since I was 30".

As one of only two individuals in the world to have their entire genetic
code to hand, Venter knows more than the rest of us about what his genes
tell him about the state of his health.

The second individual in this unique position is James Watson,
co-discoverer of the structure of DNA and, sadly, now better known in
the UK for his views on race and IQ than anything else.

I'd spoken to both men back in 2003 -- for a special Newsnight programme
to mark the 50th anniversary of Watson and Crick's discovery of the
structure of DNA.

Greatest regret

Watson was equally provocative then on the subject of genes and IQ.

"It can't be easy being born with a low IQ. A lot of people take
advantage of youand so anything which could make people at the bottom
of the -- err -- the sort of genetic basket happier I think would be
wonderful."

Venter said he was sad to see so celebrated a scientist "self-destruct".

"There is no scientific basis for what Watson was saying. Race is a
social concept, it's not a scientific one, there's no evidence in our
genetic code that would indicate there to be a clear demarcation that
would separate humans into different race categories. It is absolutely
clear to me that even the association of skin colour with medicine, the
so-called race based medicine, is clearly misguided, and when you go to
race based intelligence it just racist talk. It has no scientific basis
whatsoever."

As we discussed genetic heritage, I asked Dr Venter about his own son --
now 30. He says in the book his biggest regret is not having been able
to have played a bigger role in his upbringing.

He tells me that until recently his son was a metal sculptor. Now he's
back at college studying molecular biology, maths and computing. Much
like his dad then, a late devotee to the sciences.

Some of the most interesting things he says are in the briefest of
asides. He tells me he's in talks with Nasa bosses about gaining access
to their samples from comets -- to look for genomes there too.

"Oh we'll definitely find bacteria -- we've been exchanging life with
the rest of the solar system foreverone of the most fascinating facts I
learned recently was about how many Earth-like objects there are out
there -- in our Galaxy alone"

Another pet project is a plan to sequence the genomes of the 400 or so
people who have walked in space. We compare notes.

I'd recently been to Edinburgh for this year's congress of the
Association of Space Explorers -- celebrating the 50th anniversary of
the launch of Sputnik. These people are unique. The physiology of their
bodies has been pored over more than anyone else on Earth.

He says he's enjoyed writing the book: "It's been cathartic"

But he also admits to being more worried about publishing his
autobiography, putting his personal life out there in the open -- than
he was about publishing his genome. Scientists everywhere gained full
access to that earlier this year.

Frankenstein moment

His latest research, at his company "Synthetic Genomics" is perhaps the
most challenging yet. Look at the website "Imagine a future where
specially tailored organisms harness the Sun to create clean energy"
[no URL provided].

This is his work to put together the building blocks of life - chunks of
microbial DNA -- to bring about bio-factories that can make clean
hydrogen fuel from sunlight and water, or soak up carbon dioxide to
help combat global warming.

"We know we can make synthetic DNA -- that's been possible for the last
30 years, its just increasing the size of the pieces. It's what do you
do with it. How do you boot up a chromosome? It's not a living entity
it's just a piece of chemical.

"And what we published just a short while ago, where we could take a
chromosome -- just the naked DNA from one species and transplant it into
another bacteriaand that chromosome that we put in totally took over the
cell -- all the characteristics of the original species completely went
away, along with its chromosome, and the new chromosome dictated
everything that happened in the cell. To us that's the key experiment."

Media interest

But crucially, I asked, has he yet managed to "boot up" that chromosome
in the lab -- what some might call the Frankenstein moment..?

"No we have not achieved that yet, but experiments are underway, but
these experiments take six weeks, because cells grow slowly. It's weeks
to months away."

He pulled out a series of little "after dinner speech" cards, which
plotted out his schedule for the next few days. He read me the tiny
print.

Monday morning -- press conference at 10.30 am ("don't know why -- I've
got nothing new to say") then it's BBC "Hardtalk", then lunch with the
FT, then a dinner -- "Oh yes, and then there's Newsnight -- that's live
isn't it?"

"Enjoy tomorrow," I said "It should be fun."

"I'm gonna try and make it that way", he said - and he grinned. I wasn't
sure if his idea of "fun" is quite the same as it is for the rest of us.

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