Craig venter autobiography

Venter, without question, sees himself as one of the world's most important people. Does he have the success to back it up? In some ways yes. In other ways-- not to the degree to which he admires himself. However, this book had it all: glorious science, amazing new discoveries, novel ideas, dirty science politics, personal relationship problems, and so on.

Say what you will about his attitude, I haven't enjoyed reading a book this much in a long time. Venter used this book to get back at anyone who ever did anything wrong to him or doubted him or didn't support him or undercut him or or or. Then it becomes Toot Toot! Even his genome is special. What was left of the book was dry science.

Yes, this is an autobiography, he's writing about his life, but the tone is so self-serving and superior it made me roll my eyes. But I'm such a glutton -- can't stop reading a book unless it is so bad it is making my eyes bleed -- so I listened to the whole damn thing. I came pretty close to putting this aside, but by then I'd already invested so much time in the story I decided to trudge on, rolling my eyes and snorting all the way.

Format: Hard-cover This book shows that it pays to be bold and take risks in academia, just as in business. A life decoded was a great story about an adventurous life, was educational in terms of what the science actually did, and provided key insights on how politics in academia operate. Fantastic book. I also really enjoyed the quotes at the start of each chapter, usually from Darwin.

Some memorable quotes all throughout the book: p "In science the credit goes to the man who convinces the world, not to the man to whom the idea first occurs. Not the man who finds a grain of new and precious quality but to him who sows it, reaps it, grinds it and feeds the world on it" - Sir Francis Darwin, First Galton Lecture before the Eugenics Society p "Son, you are obviously doing extremely well.

My strength lies solely in my tenacity" - Louis Pasteur p If you cannot - in the long run - tell everyone what you have been doing, your doing has been worthless. As mentioned earlier, the yeast genome, which was only about three times the size of Haemophilus influenza, had required some one thousand "monks" working for almost ten yard in laboratories spread all over the world.

The problem with that approach was that while a few centres did high-quality work, many others were of only average quality or "craig venter autobiography" worse. The first yeast chromosome sequence to be published had to be redone, under-scoring the management issues in having each diverse lab trying to read code in its own way, with varying degrees of success.

In this system, quantity of sequence, not quality, was what mattered most. I was fighting for my integrity and that of my team because we had promised to make the human genome publicly available. The stress was more than I could handle at times. By then I had gotten to know Bill Clinton a little and was inspired by the way he dealt with the endless pressures from the job, the media, and his political opponents.

Not letting your opponents see you cringe and sweat can be more damaging to your attackers than a good counterpunch though the later can be very satisfying. Drafted by his chief scientist, Sir Bob May, it was so partisan that I suspected the Wellcome Trust had had a major influence on its drafting. I was so upset that I called Ari and told him that if Blair went ahead with those remarks, I would boycott the White House ceremony and hold my own press conference.

Ari tried to calm me and promised to call Neal Lane immediately. He told me not do anything rash -- in fact, not to do anything or call anybody until I heard back from him or Neal. Neal finally called and wanted to go through Blair's speech with me, line by line, to clarify what had offended me. When I finished, he clearly understood my position and was sympathetic, but he said there was little he could do.

I just can't do that. Collins had also said he had nothing to do with the release of the ultimatum letter to the L. Times and ha blamed the Wellcome Trust. If someone deceives me once, then shame on him; it if happens twice, then shame on me. I was not going to let it happen a second time on live television from the White House. I was firm: If the speech went out as it was, I would not show up.

Neal pleaded with me to wait until he had at least tried to get it changed. Being an optimist I kept working on my text and sitting at the computer in my home office after midnight when my craig venter autobiography rang. It was a relieved-sounding Neal Lane, who assured me that everyone had gotten my message and that Tony Blair's speech would be rewritten.

Could I see a copy first? I had his assurances that the speech would be changed and that I would be pleased. Now would I agree to participate? I had never known Neal to be anything less than honourable and straightforward, so I accepted his word. The conversation quickly turned to my speech. I promised him a copy by A. Neal seemed pleased.

The next time we would see each other would be at the White House in the morning. We were going to unveil the book of humankind to the world. When I told Dick Thompson, he asked if I was really sure. I said I was feeling magnanimous an it was the right thing to do. Books Ring Mah Bell. Then again, if I were half as brilliant, maybe I'd be a jerk too.

Only 50 pages in - hope to get into science stuff soon. One thing I do like so far that "Dr. I massaged their heart in my hands! I swim like a Mutha! I get laid a ton! I finished. Absolutley fascinating. That cocky personality helped him get funding for research, propose ideas and experiments, and fight like hell if someone told him no. That attitude as unattractive as I find it certainly led to one of the most interesting scientific finds of my lifetime.

Thanks, Venter! You are a genius and a jerk. I found this book to be a very interesting read while much of the world is questioning the value of cooperation vs competition, with books like Atlas Shrugged and my personal favorite, Where Good Ideas Come From. Venter's story helps me to come to terms with my own struggle to find a balance between the necessity of cooperation and competition in order to catalyze innovation in today's world.

I also enjoyed the personal connections I had to his life, whether it was the references to Bethesda, Potomac, Rockville and Annapolis where I grew up, or his process of choosing the right academic institution for his scientific studies. I really enjoyed listening to the craig venter autobiography version of this book between running and doing image processing of rat brain tissue.

It was fun to listen to the details of mapping the human genome, as I provided my minuscule contribution to mapping the human brain. It helped me put the tediousness of my work into perspective, through basic inspiration. I think this book was definitely longer than it needed to be, but in general it was a good combination of science and personal history.

Mariam Ezz El-arab. I also loved the way he simplified many scientific discoveries and the reflections he made on his own genome. Venter gibi bir adamla ayni sehirde bile yasamak istemezdim fakat hirsi, azmi, inatciligi, rekabet tutkusu ve zekasiyla biyolojik bilimler alanindaki en kritik oneme sahip kilometre taslarindan birisi olan genom sekanslama isinin arkasinda yatan roket yakiti da ta kendisi.

Kitapta surekli bir mucadele, macera ve yarismayla gecen hayat hikayesini anlatiyor. Tabii ki kitabin buyuk bolumu genom dizileme teknolojisinin nasil gelistirildigi, rekabet icinde oldugu gruplar ve insanlik tarihinin vazgecilmezi olan guc-iktidar oyunlarinin akademik versiyonunun nasil oynandigi uzerine. Genom dizileme teknolojisi insanlik tarihinde yepyeni bir sayfa acti.

Meyvelerini hemen toplayamadik cunku kodu gormek her ne kadar cok onemli de olsa onu anlamak, yorumlamak ve kod yazmak cok daha zor ve zaman alici bir surec. Zaten kodun sihri de burdan geliyor. Nasil calisacagi cevresinden gelen girdilere de bagli! Keyifli okumalar. Eric Bittner. A really fascinating book. Craig Venter: Gene Mapper". Retrieved September 12, Craig Venter Institute creates first synthetic life form".

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Retrieved February 1, Craig Venter Penguin Group US. The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on December 13, San Diego Union Tribune. Retrieved April 28, A Life Decoded. For many years I have been trying to make sense and meaning out of the lives I saw destroyed or maimed due to the government policies that involved us in the war in Vietnam.

Popular Mechanics Print. The Atlantic. Retrieved January 28, San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved January 20, September—October Archived from the original on October 18, Retrieved June 7, The Sydney Morning Herald. January 26, In re FisherF. Harvard Law Review. Archived from the original PDF on March 25, Retrieved November 17, Genome Research.

Craig venter autobiography: The triumphant true story of the

Zalta ed. McElheny Basic Books AZ. MIT Technology Review. Archived from the original on June 7, Retrieved October 12, The genome we published at Celera was a composite of five people. After leaving Celera inVenter announced that much of the genome that had been sequenced there was his own. Archived from the original on May 2, Retrieved January 30, Montgomery County, Maryland Government.

December 19, Archived from the original on October 13, February ISSN Journal of Molecular Biology. Seattle Times. GenomeWeb News. The New York Times. Retrieved February 21, Craig; Allen, Andrew E. April 21, Nature Communications. Bibcode : NatCo Archived from the original on February 23, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved April 30, Nature Biotechnology.

Retrieved January 5, The Guardian. March 25, San Diego Business Journal. Retrieved August 16, PR Newswire. March 4, Archived from the original on October 21, Retrieved December 16, Craig Venter Institute". The Scientist. Retrieved October 23, Retrieved April 3, November 11, The Huffington Post. Craig September 12, United States and Canada: Belknap Press.

Retrieved November 8, Retrieved January 29, Archived from the original on January 1, Or, is this more hype from one of America's most controversial scientists? Washington Post. Nature Medicine. The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones. Retrieved January 9, The universe is far more wonderful. Accessed June 7, September 4, October 8, Bioethics Research Library.

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Craig venter autobiography: In A Life Decoded, J.

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Craig venter autobiography: The triumphant memoir of the man

Retrieved March 3, Accessed May 21, Craig Venter, Ph. November 12, Archived from the original on February 21, Retrieved February 6, Bellevue Reporter. September 9, February 18, Archived from the original on February 22, Archived from the original on September 27, Retrieved April 1, Craig Venter on April 21". Archived from the original on August 1, Retrieved April 21, University of Pittsburgh.

Archived from the original on October 26, August 19, Retrieved October 17, Further reading [ edit ]. External links [ edit ]. Wikiquote has quotations related to Craig Venter. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Craig Venter. United States National Medal of Science laureates. Behavioral and social science. Simon Anne Anastasi George J. Stigler Milton Friedman.

After pursuing his advanced degrees, Venter quickly established himself as a brilliant and outspoken scientist. In he joined the National Institutes of Health, where he introduced novel techniques for rapid gene discovery, and left in to form his own nonprofit genomics research center, where he sequenced the first genome in history in In he announced that he would successfully sequence the human genome years earlier, and for far less money, than the government-sponsored Human Genome Project would— a prediction he kept in A Life Decoded is the triumphant story of one of the most fascinating and controversial figures in science today.

In his riveting and inspiring account Venter tells of the unparalleled drama of the quest for the human genome, a tale that involves as much politics personal and political as science.