The Ocean's Genome

Big Picture Science

Science, Technology

4.5 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 13 January 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

After helping to sequence the human genome more than twenty years ago, biochemist Craig Venter seemed to recede from the public eye. But he hadn’t retired. He had gone to sea and taken his revolutionary sequencing tools with him. We chatted with him about his multi-year voyage aboard the research vessel Sorcerer II, its parallels to Darwin’s voyage, and the surprising discoveries his team made about the sheer number and diversity of marine microbes and their roles in ocean ecosystems. Guests: Craig Venter - Genomicist, biochemist, founder of the J. Craig Venter Institute, and co-author of “The Voyage of Sorcerer II: The Expedition that Unlocked the Secrets of the Ocean’s Microbiome.” Jeff Hoffman - Lab manager at the J. Craig Venter Institute and expedition scientist on the Sorcerer II expedition. Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake Originally aired December 18, 2023 Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast.
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0:19.5	I'm Matt Kaplan, the host of safeguarding sound science, evolution edition.
0:24.8	Evolution is the unifying principle of biology, yet it still breeds controversy a century
0:30.4	and a half after Charles Darwin.
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0:44.8	on Apple, Spotify, Amazon,
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0:49.3	Music You didn't have to follow the race closely to remember when it was finished, and a historic announcement was made in June 2000.
1:07.0	It was one of the most significant achievements in modern biology. We are here to celebrate the completion of the first survey of the entire human genome.
1:15.6	Without a doubt, this is the most important, most wondrous map ever produced by humankind.
1:21.6	Now, many scientists were involved in decoding the human genome, but one stood out before becoming
1:28.3	a biochemist and a genomicist. Craig Venter was a surfer and a sailor, and then he made waves as a maverick.
1:36.2	He pioneered a highly efficient technique for identifying and tagging genes.
1:41.5	And while the government-led human genome project was well underway,
1:45.0	announced that his private company was going to take on the task of sequencing the human genome too.
1:51.0	Throwing his pipette into the ring turned a noteworthy effort to map the human genome
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