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Media Day Circus On Sorcerer II
June 23nd On Monday June 21st we announced the official start of the Mediterranean leg of the Sorcerer II Global Ocean Sampling Expedition. Dr. Venter took time from his busy schedule to fly into Valencia and attend the event as well as representatives from The Life Technology Foundation. The first part of the day was dedicated to media (newspapers, radio and T.V.), which included local Valencia and national outlets from Madrid. For more on press information please click here, on the linked...
Genomics of the Indoor Air Environment
Most of our life is spent in indoors, well-buffered from the constant changes in temperature, humidity, wind and light which shape life outside our homes and offices. It seems intuitive that the types of microorganisms which inhabit our indoor environment must be different from those on the outside; after all, by removing environmental stresses such as UV, dessication and wind, we eliminate selective pressures on populations.We spend 23 hours a day indoors, but we know very little about the...
The Great Blizzard Sample of Lake Redon!
May15th 2010 We decided to do the 3 lakes in the Banyoles area first because the weather in the Pyrenees was so bad that we wouldn't have been able to get up the mountain to sample Lake Redon. Lake Redon is a pristine Alpine lake that is sampled weekly by Spanish researchers. On Tuesday May 11th the weather prediction for the next few days in the Pyrenees said clear skies, so we loaded up the van and Chris, Emilio, Maria and myself took off on the 341 kilometer (211 miles) drive. Route...
Influences of trace metals on biological evolution
Scientists show how trace metal chemistry and global changes in oxygen have influenced the evolution of metalloproteins and the Eukaryotes A paper is being published in PNAS this week about how the varying abundance of trace metals in the environment has influenced biological evolution. The research team, led by Chris Dupont of the J. Craig Venter Institute and Gustavo Caetano-Anollés at the University of Illinois, correlated environmental changes in metal availability over the past 3...
JCVI Scientists Recognized by ASM
Drs. Karen E. Nelson and Kenneth H. Nealson are both being recognized by the American Academy of Microbiology (ASM) tomorrow, May 26, 2010. Karen has been elected to Fellowship in the ASM. She is one of seventy-eight new members that have been selected through a peer-review process based on her contributions to microbiology. Karen is currently the Director of JCVI’s Rockville, Maryland Campus and leads the Genomic Medicine Group. Most recently she, along with JCVI staff and in conjunction...
Scientist Spotlight: Hamilton O. Smith and Clyde A. Hutchison III
Editor’s note: Clyde Hutchison died on September 27, 2025. Less than a month later, Hamilton Smith died on October 25, 2025. This post memorializes their dear friendship and the quest to construct the first bacterium with a synthetic genome in 2010. Their friendship endured and their work continued, realizing the goal of building the first minimized genome, JCVI-syn3.0, now used as a model organism worldwide. They were both active in moving science forward until shortly before their...
Having Fun with Genomics
I am the generation after landing on the moon. As a child, I don’t recall having any science inspiration. I was fortunate to have parents that made it possible for me and my siblings to get a very good education. I went to a small parochial school outside of Washington, DC. It was a great school but we had no labs and so my exposure to science was limited at best. I always liked school and did well, especially in math. Then I went to Elizabeth Seton High School and had a bumpy road...
AGBT, Marco Island 2010
I just got back from AGBT in Marco Island, Florida and I am still in awe. As noted in the name, this conference highlights advances in both genome biology and technology. The biology seemed to be very human genome centric. Many of the talks presented full genome sequences of cancer genomes or familial cohorts. Some of the numbers that people threw around were shocking. It was only a short time ago that Craig Venter came out with the first personal genome, and now sequencing centers like...
High Impact Science in Antarctica
Big changes in store for the Mertz Polynya: in February 2010 iceberg 9B9 collided with the Mertz Glacier, breaking the 70 km floating glacier off at the base. The Mertz Polynya was extensivley sampled by scientists at the JCVI in the summer of 2007/08, and this metagenomic survey will form an important baseline for evaluating on-going changes in the area.
Science Festivals
With spring around the corner (or at least we hope), there are several upcoming science festivals. These festivals are designed to provide students and families opportunities to find out what is happening in local science research institutes, universities and companies. These organizations are expanding the text books beyond our imaginations. These are EXCITING times in science – we are just scratching the surface of understanding the diversity of life on our planet, beginning to understand...