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Young American ScientistsJune 16, 2026
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Craig VenterIn his final interview, the “swashbuckling” geneticist pointed the way for scienceJeanna Bryner
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HIVJune 19, 2026
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In world first, a man living with HIV received a lung transplant from an HIV-positive donorTanya Lewis
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Young American ScientistsJune 16, 2026
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My childhood in scienceAlan Lightman
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The UniverseJune 19, 2026
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JWST catches cosmic imposters spoofing faraway galaxiesPhil Plait
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GamesJune 19, 2026
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Today’s SpellementsEmma R. Hasson
[H2] The Young American Scientists Issue—Read Now
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GamesJune 19, 2026
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Science Quiz: What's a trillion?Allison Parshall
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June 19, 2026
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The World Cup is battling extreme heat. Which cooling methods really work?Chris Stokel-Walker
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Materials ScienceJune 19, 2026
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Scientists pop the cork on the hidden chemistry inside wine bottlesSam Macdonald
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AstronomyJune 19, 2026
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Scientists discover remnants of Jellyfish Nebula’s ‘sibling’ supernovaSam MacdonaldExplore TopicsHealthMind & BrainEnvironmentTechnologySpace & PhysicsBiologyMathChemistrySocial SciencesVideosPodcastsOpinionGamesReportsDiscussionsView All Stories
[H2] July/August 2026 Issue
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Social Sciences
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U.S. science is in chaosAdam Rogers
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Science Education
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On our radarMegha Satyanarayana
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Biology
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Craig VenterJeanna Bryner
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Space & Physics
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My childhood in scienceAlan Lightman
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History of Science
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When science is under siege, history offers a playbookDeborah Blum
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Public Health
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Atul GawandeTara HaelleView Full IssueExplore Archive
[H2] The Young American Scientists
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June 16, 2026
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How we chose the 2026 Young American ScientistsAri Sen
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Society & PolicyJune 16, 2026
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Dozens of countries are trying to lure U.S. scientists abroad—and it’s workingSarah Scoles
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The SciencesJune 16, 2026
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Inside U.S. labs at a moment of fear—and unexpected promiseRebecca Boyle
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CultureJune 16, 2026
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What people get wrong about scientistsDava SobelExplore Collection
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Astronomy
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The new story of the Milky Way’s surprisingly turbulent pastAnn Finkbeiner
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Dark Matter
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Dark matter might lurk in its own shadow worldKathryn Zurek
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Space Exploration
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Why we'll never live in spaceSarah Scoles
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Black Holes
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The puzzle of the first black holesPriyamvada Natarajan
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Astrophysics
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What if we never find dark matter?Tracy R. Slatyer, Tim M. P. Tait
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Cosmology
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Astronomers’ epic quest to witness the cosmic dawnRebecca BoyleView Full IssueExplore ArchiveThank you for signing up! Check out our other newsletters
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June 19, 2026
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How viruses may reshape the body’s ‘soil’ to promote cancer growthRachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Alex Sugiura
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NeuroscienceJune 17, 2026
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Learning from unexpected results: This neuroscientist is redefining how the brain learnsRachel Feltman, Sushmita Pathak, Alex Sugiura
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AstrophysicsJune 15, 2026
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How Erini Lambrides went from seeking theater stardom to studying the stars at NASARachel Feltman, Sushmita Pathak, Alex Sugiura
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LanguageJune 12, 2026
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Disclosure Day raises a big question: How do you talk to aliens?Rachel Feltman, Sushmita Pathak, Brianne Kane, Alex Sugiura
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SportsJune 10, 2026
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Inside the high-stakes effort to bring natural grass to World Cup stadiumsRachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Alex SugiuraMore Podcasts
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What role do you think government should play in science?6View the DiscussionTake me to your reader: Scientific American staff recommend their favorite alien books, but what’s your favorite? 2View the DiscussionView All Discussions
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Social SciencesJune 16, 2026
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U.S. science is in chaosHow did we get here?Adam Rogers
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CellsJune 13, 2026
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World-first: therapy to make cells young again given to a personThe first participant has been treated in a landmark clinical trial of cellular reprogramming, which aims to rejuvenate aging cellsHeidi Ledford, Nature magazine
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EarthJune 18, 2026
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Japan’s 2011 earthquake was so powerful that it shifted the entire country’s locationThis “extraordinary” event was likely caused by seismic waves bouncing off Earth’s core, researchers foundJackie Flynn Mogensen
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Society & PolicyJune 16, 2026
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Dozens of countries are trying to lure U.S. scientists abroad—and it’s workingThe great American brain drain could define science for a generationSarah Scoles
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MathematicsJune 15, 2026
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Russia seeks mathematician’s extraditionMikhail Verbitsky was detained at an Armenian airport last Thursday on charges of inciting terrorismJoseph Howlett
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MathematicsJune 16, 2026
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Math predicts humans could go extinct in about 17,000 yearsSome mathematicians have predicted when humanity’s downfall might occur—though the circumstances are unspecifiedManon BischoffView All Stories

June 16, 20264 min read
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My childhood in scienceThe story of the author’s extremely early careerBy Alan Lightman edited by Seth Fletcher
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Max-o-maticThis article is part of “The Young American Scientists,” which includes stories of 28 extraordinary scientists poised to change the world, as well as a deep look at the past, present and future of science and innovation in the U.S.In late 1957, around my ninth birthday, the Soviet Union launched the world’s first artificial satellite, called Sputnik. I became entranced with the idea of building a rocket of my own. I imagined the lift-off, the graceful arc of the craft as it careened through space. By the age of 13 or 14 I had started mixing my own rocket fuels. A fuel that burned too fast would explode like a bomb; a fuel that burned too slow would smolder like a barbecue grill. I settled on a particular mixture of sulfur, charcoal and potassium nitrate. The body of the rocket, I built out of an aluminum tube. For the ignition system, I used the flashbulb of a Kodak Brownie camera embedded within the fuel chamber. The launching pad, I made out of a Coca-Cola crate filled with concrete, anchoring it with a V-shaped steel girder tilted skyward at 45 degrees.Somehow I had got it into my head that I needed a passenger. So I built a capsule, to be housed in the upper fuselage of the rocket, and recruited a lizard to ride in it as my astronaut. I constructed a parachute out of silk handkerchiefs and carefully wrapped it around the capsule. A small gunpowder charge—ignited by a mercury switch, a AAA battery and a high-resistance wire—would eject the capsule at the highest point of the trajectory.The launch went flawlessly. After the countdown, I closed the switch, the Brownie flashbulb went off, the fuel ignited, and the rocket shot from its launching pad. A few seconds later, at apogee, the capsule ejected and came floating gracefully back to Earth. My friends and I hurried over to inspect the capsule and astronaut. I am not sure what we were expecting to find. What we did find was that the lizard seemed to be A-OK, except that its tail had been burned off. Only a blackened stump remained at the base of its spine. Apparently the tail had hung down into the fuel chamber, a detail I had neglected in my various drawings and calculations. I was elated by my success, but I felt bad for the lizard.
[H2] On supporting science journalism
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.In high school I built many other science projects. After seeing the 1931 movie version of Frankenstein, with the giant electrical spark flashing between two standing antennae, I made an induction coil, which involved winding a mile of thin wire around a magnet core, a laborious feat I managed with the spool of a fishing rod.It filled me with a sense of personal power. It filled me with self-confidence.When I got interested in biology and culturing living cells, I built an incubator out of an insulated box, a lightbulb to provide heat, and a thermostat. I was curious about the world. I wanted to understand why things were what they were: What caused the seasons? Why was the sky blue? What made some things “alive” and others not? Did outer space go on forever? Why were dinosaurs so big? Of course, I couldn’t answer most of these questions. But I could do experiments and build things to learn a little about how the world worked.And there was the great joy of discovery, and discovery on my own.Among my scientific projects, I began making pendulums by tying a fishing weight to the end of a string. I built them of different lengths and timed their swings with a stopwatch. I had read that the period of the pendulum—the time it takes to make one complete swing—was proportional to the square root of the length of the string. I personally verified that formula and then used it to predict the periods of new pendulums even before I had made them. I had discovered a law about the natural world! That accomplishment was not only about knowledge. It filled me with a sense of personal power. It filled me with self-confidence. And it was thrilling.In addition to my science projects, I read a lot and wrote short stories and poetry. I expressed in verse my questions about mortality, my admiration for a plum-colored sky, my unrequited love for girls. Overdue books of poetry and stories littered my second-floor bedroom.I think many young people have a natural interest in the arts and humanities as well as in the sciences, but we are often pushed in one direction or the other by our friends, our parents and our teachers. We should resist those early pressures to be a “scientific type,” always rational and deliberate, or an “artistic type,” always intuitive and spontaneous. We can be both. And we should be both.Science tells us about the physical world. The arts and humanities tell us how to live in that world, the world of people. Science has given us automobiles, antibiotics, computers. The humanities have given us values and guidance on how to live our lives. Now more than ever, when much of the world, including the U.S., has lost its moral compass, leading to a dog-eat-dog mentality, we need science combined with literature, philosophy, history and art. We need to discover not only the physical world but also our own humanity.
[H2] It’s Time to Stand Up for Science
If you enjoyed this article, I’d like to ask for your support. Scientific American has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.I’ve been a Scientific American subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.If you subscribe to Scientific American, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can't-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world's best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you’ll support us in that mission.Thank you,David M. Ewalt, Editor in Chief, Scientific AmericanSubscribe

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June 16, 2026
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Craig VenterIn his final interview, the “swashbuckling” geneticist pointed the way for scienceBy Jeanna Bryner edited by Kate Wong
[IMG: Close-up portrait photograph of J. Craig Venter, image provided by K.C. Alfred/San Diego Union-Tribune/Getty Images.]
K.C. Alfred/San Diego Union-Tribune/Getty ImagesThis article is part of “The Young American Scientists,” which includes stories of 28 extraordinary scientists poised to change the world, as well as a deep look at the past, present and future of science and innovation in the U.S.J. Craig Venter was a pioneer in the fields of human genomics and synthetic biology, pursuits that both put him in the spotlight and earned him the label of “controversial.”Venter’s scientific achievements and character were fodder for a flood of obituaries and social media posts that poured in after the announcement of his death at the end of April, at the age of 79. “Craig was a divisive figure but had huge chutzpah and was always driven on by the science,” says Roger Highfield, a science journalist who knew Venter professionally, having both edited two of the geneticist’s books and written about him over the years. (Highfield is also science director of the U.K. Science Museum Group.)When I spoke with Venter over video about the state of American science, just a month prior to his death, his bearing—described as “swashbuckling” by Highfield—seemed softened by humility and thoughtfulness. At one point, he veered into more philosophical territory and remarked on the absurdity of the goal of living forever. “If you want immortality,” he said, “do something meaningful while you’re alive.”
[H2] On supporting science journalism
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.J. Craig Venter sat down with SciAm weeks before his passing, and spoke widely about genomics, AI hype, what the Trump administration has gotten right about science, and his view of a path to immortality.Venter’s own goals were shaped by early experiences outside of academia. “I started my science career by getting drafted and spending a year in Vietnam as a medic and learning that fundamentally the biggest thing I had to lose was my life.”Venter went on to lead a number of trailblazing efforts that transformed human understanding of biology. In 1995 he published the first bacterial genome sequence. Five years later, using a whole-genome shotgun-sequencing method that he developed, Venter and the government-backed Human Genome Project announced the first fully sequenced human genome. He then turned his attention to synthetic genomes, creating the first synthetic, self-replicating bacterial cell in 2010.An edited transcript of the interview follows.How would you describe the current state of American science?I’d say the best way to describe it is that it’s in extreme flux for all kinds of reasons, not just political. Artificial intelligence has entered the scene in an interesting way. It may be a little bit overhyped, but it’s certainly affecting how people think about the future of science. I think people are looking for miracle solutions with AI that aren’t going to occur. When we made the first synthetic cell, about a quarter of the genes were of completely unknown function. AI is worthless as a tool to identify the function of those genes because if it’s not part of the training set, it doesn’t exist in its world. All these people who are talking about how AI is going to design new genomes, design whole new things—it can’t make things outside of its repertoire.We’re all limited by our training sets, but humans have the unique ability of being able to assemble things from missing pieces. That’s what I’ve been particularly good at—taking complex concepts and seeing what’s next, figuring out what we have to solve and answer to get there.We’re also in flux because of the funding and the competition and the political turmoil in the world. So much of science now is dependent on open, candid communication across countries and open movement of people. We’re suffering a lot in the U.S. medically because so many of our interns and residents have traditionally come from overseas, but in many hospitals now there are huge wait times because we’ve blocked the workforce from coming in. The same is true for science with postdocs and graduate students.This is the fuel that feeds the future of science—new young blood coming in and getting educated and excited about the future. We’re shooting ourselves in the foot a little bit there, and at the same time we’re facing increasing competition at very substantial levels. For example, in the field of synthetic biology, China’s outspending the U.S. 10 or 15 to one.What do you think needs to change in American science?There are so many things that need to change. I think we’re slowly getting back there. The good news over the years is—and most people aren’t aware of this—Republican Congresses have generally been more supportive of disease research and funding at the National Institutes of Health than Democratic governments. Congress is starting to get a little bit of a backbone and put some funding back into getting good, solid, basic science going. We still need to make a whole lot of changes in science.In addition to funding basic science, what other changes would you like to see?I’ll answer with an example from 1995, when Hamilton Smith, the Nobel laureate, and I wrote a grant and submitted it to the NIH, proposing our idea for shotgun sequencing to sequence the first genome in history. It was turned down with extreme prejudice—even though we were almost finished with the genome and had no doubt in our minds it was going to work, the mathematics would work, the assembly worked. I wrote a letter to Francis Collins [who was at the time the director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the NIH] saying, “You should consider funding this just so the NIH won’t be embarrassed when, after you turn it down, we go ahead and are first in history.” I still have the letter that I got back, saying that they totally stand by their decision, and they’re certain that it won’t work. A short time later we published the first sequence of the full genome.
[IMG: J. Craig Venter sitting at a desk while holding his dog named Darwin. 2011 photograph provided by Eli Meir Kaplan/The Washington Post/Getty Images.]
J. Craig Venter poses with his dog, Darwin, in 2011.Eli Meir Kaplan/The Washington Post/Getty ImagesAre you saying government agencies should financially support these types of endeavors?In a sense. Because we proved an idea worked, we then were flooded with funding from the NIH, the Department of Energy, and other agencies to do more genomes. They’ll fund an idea after it’s proven to be correct, but that’s not how science works at its best. We should fund new ideas and take risks to get to those new ideas faster. The American people should feel outraged that they’re not getting 10 times the discoveries that they are getting, because we don’t fund new ideas. Several years ago, when Elias A. Zerhouni was the NIH director, he wanted to form a special award for high-risk research, and he asked molecular biologist and Nobel laureate Sydney Brenner and me to head up a committee to recommend candidates for this award. We came up with 10 top candidates. The NIH decided they were all too risky and didn’t want to give them the award for high-risk research, because it sent the wrong message.What’s missing are more opportunities for young scientists to come in and be able to take these risks, try things, and get rewarded or learn from the failure. I know a lot because I failed so many times that I’ve learned more from the failures than from the successes.Speaking of young scientists, what piece of advice would you give to early-career scientists right now?You have to take risks. If you’re risk averse, you’re in the wrong field. It’s the definition of doing an experiment. You don’t know the outcome. My favorite job is being an experimentalist. I can ask questions and try to get answers. Being a fundamental experimentalist is the essence of science. I’ve been very lucky in my career in having the ability to try to answer big questions. Most people are afraid of trying to do that.You mentioned your time as a medic in the Vietnam War as shaping your scientific path. Is that where your love of risk-taking comes from?I was always a risk-taker, but that experience in the war sort of set the philosophy for the rest of my life. I wanted to apply my skill set to honoring the thousands of young men and women my age fighting in a war that almost nobody believed in. I went back to school to get an education and try to honor these people by doing something meaningful with my life.What gives you optimism right now in science and innovation here in the U.S.?Things seem bleak, but currently we’re still hanging on, maybe by a tooth, to leading the world in science. This is in large part because of philanthropy. We have unique institutions and unique ways of thinking in the U.S. that almost do not exist anywhere else in the world. A lot of people are doing amazing things with the fortunes they’ve inherited or developed, and that’s the backbone of how we move science forward. People think it’s government funding. Government funding sort of fills in the backbone, builds our infrastructure—without [funding for] indirect costs, I can’t pay for my building, my electricity, the human resources people, anything. The infrastructure of science is just as critical as the funding for new ideas, but we have a great combination of government and philanthropic funding because people do believe in putting money in science.People are also excited about new computing tools. It’s hard to imagine how powerful computers will become. It’s been more than 25 years since we sequenced the first human genome, and we now have whole new tools to start it over again the right way.What do you mean by doing sequencing “the right way”?We all had these great dreams 25 years ago, and they got sort of subverted by geneticists being sure that changes in a single nucleotide base, or letter, of DNA explained everything in the genetic code. Which they don’t.It’s taken 25 years to realize how faulty that notion is. The NIH chose just to fund the sequencing of more genomes instead of trying to understand your complete set of observable traits. Sequencing more genomes tells us a lot about ancestry and history. It doesn’t tell you the shape of your face, the spectrum your brain will function at, or your genetic susceptibility to environmental interactions, disease or wellness.This is where AI can be helpful—taking all the information we could know about an individual and relating it back to their genome. We’ll be able to do this tens, hundreds of thousands, millions of times faster as the tools get better. The tools still have to be developed, but that’s why I’m optimistic. What we dreamed about 25 years ago is now doable.How have AI and new technology changed the field of genomics in the past few years?Just in the past few months, even. It’s the mathematical tools. It’s the AI. It’s just the fundamental change in computing. In 1999 I built the third-largest civilian computer in the world. It was one and a half teraflops. It filled two giant rooms. Now you can have a laptop that’s much more powerful than that. Computing technology, memory, large language models, and other new tools we now have can find associations between things that the human eye can’t readily discern.In genomics, we used to get just a collection of fragments. Now we can have complete genomes. We can understand your mother’s genome, your father’s genome. It’s called the diploid genome. In January we started a company called Diploid Genomics, Inc., to deploy genomics to really start to understand humanity at its most basic level. We’re calling it genome 2.0. I never thought it would take 25 years to get here, but some things move more slowly than others.
[H2] It’s Time to Stand Up for Science
If you enjoyed this article, I’d like to ask for your support. Scientific American has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.I’ve been a Scientific American subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.If you subscribe to Scientific American, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can't-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world's best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you’ll support us in that mission.Thank you,David M. Ewalt, Editor in Chief, Scientific AmericanSubscribe