Life at The Speed of Light – From the Double Helix to the Dawn of Digital Life

Adriano Marques
CEO at XNV

Quickly passing through the most important events in the history of biology and genetics, the author goes through his own endeavors pioneering the human genome sequencing and successfully creating the first form of life with a synthetic genome.

It goes as deep as describing the procedures in details, so you’ve got to have some previous experience with the topic in order to be able to follow. While at college, I did a short internship in a genome sequencing initiative at UFG focused on sequencing the genome of the eucalyptus tree. For that reason, and the curiosity I always had about this subject, I could follow the book just fine. If you this subject is a complete alien for you, you’ll still enjoy the read, but be ready to stop and do some research if you have questions.x

At the end, the author ponders about the future of genetics and humanity, and it pretty much lays a very similar prediction to the one found on The Singularity is Near, only that instead of focusing on nanotechnology the author focus on DNA and synthetic forms of life that are going to do things they’re programmed to.

Very good read, debates a good deal about ethical issues around the matter and will certainly enlighten you on the current status of life synthesis and what future awaits.

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