Ted Talk Craig Venter: A Voyage of DNA, genes, and the sea

Craig Ventor is a biologist and genomic researcher. In 2001 he sequenced the human genome, in 2003 he sailed the globe to sample, catalog and decode the genes of the oceans unknown microorganisms. Now he is working to create the first synthetic lifeforms - microorganisms that can produce alternative sources of energy.

A human genome is a person's complete set of DNA. Genomics is a term that describes the study of all the genes in a person, as well as the interactions of those genes with each other and a person's environment.

Ventor spoke about millions of new genes discovered from organisms in the world's oceans and about his voyage aboard the Sorcerer II, a 92 foot yacht that sailed to Bermuda, Halifax, the Caribbean, Panama, Galapagos, and the Indian Ocean. He has made amazing discoveries about gene similarities like every species uses pigment and sunlight to see.

He spoke about synthetic genomics which is a field of research in which scientists use chemically created pieces of DNA and assemble chromosomes to create new pharmaceuticals and biologically produced green fuels.

Venter said that in the future species could be genetically engineered for food and posed the question as to weather or not we should make an artificial life form. The technology of synthetic biology will continue to evolve rapidly, but not without debates about the societal impact and potential dangers to the world.

Ventor says that genomics is the field of science that has the power to transform the world around us by impacting human health and better treating disease by enabling a better understanding of the environment and potentially creating new biological sources of energy.

If new sources of energy can be created through genomics, this may be what the world has been looking for, ways to produce alternative fuels such as ethanol or hydrogen. To design, synthesize and assemble synthetic microorganisms that will produce fuels that that the planet needs could be vital to solving environmental problems of the future.