The Voyage of Sorcerer II: The Expedition That Unlocked the Secrets of the Ocean's Microbiome

by J. Craig Venter, David Ewing Duncan, Erling Norrby (Foreword by)

Overview

“Will undoubtedly shape our understanding of the global ecosystem for decades to come.”
—Siddhartha Mukherjee, author of The Emperor of All Maladies

A celebrated genome scientist sails around the world, collecting tens of millions of marine microbes and revolutionizing our understanding of the microbiome that sustains us.

Upon completing his historic work on the Human Genome Project, J. Craig Venter declared that he would sequence the genetic code of all life on earth. Thus began a fifteen-year quest to collect DNA from the world’s oldest and most abundant form of life: microbes. Boarding the Sorcerer II, a 100-foot sailboat turned research vessel, Venter traveled over 65,000 miles around the globe to sample ocean water and the microscopic life within.

In The Voyage of Sorcerer II, Venter and science writer David Ewing Duncan tell the remarkable story of these expeditions and of the momentous discoveries that ensued—of plant-like bacteria that get their energy from the sun, proteins that metabolize vast amounts of hydrogen, and microbes whose genes shield them from ultraviolet light. The result was a massive library of millions of unknown genes, thousands of unseen protein families, and new lineages of bacteria that revealed the unimaginable complexity of life on earth. Yet despite this exquisite diversity, Venter encountered sobering reminders of how human activity is disturbing the delicate microbial ecosystem that nurtures life on earth. In the face of unprecedented climate change, Venter and Duncan show how we can harness the microbial genome to develop alternative sources of energy, food, and medicine that might ultimately avert our destruction.

A captivating story of exploration and discovery, The Voyage of Sorcerer II restores microbes to their rightful place as crucial partners in our evolutionary past and guides to our future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674246478
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	09/12/2023
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	615,840
Product dimensions:	8.20(w) x 5.50(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

J. Craig Venter is founder, Chairman, and CEO of the J. Craig Venter Institute, a nonprofit research organization. He is cofounder of the biotechnology companies Celera, Synthetic Genomics, and Human Longevity, Inc. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, he has received numerous public honors and scientific awards, including the US National Medal of Science.

David Ewing Duncan is an award-winning science journalist. A contributor to Wired, Vanity Fair, the New York Times, National Public Radio, ABC News, The Atlantic, and National Geographic and the bestselling author of eleven books published in twenty-one languages, he was founding director of the Center for Life Science Policy at the University of California, Berkeley.

Editorial Reviews

07/03/2023

Venter (Life at the Speed of Light), a biotechnologist best known for his work decoding the human genome, and science writer Duncan (A Philosopher on Wall Street) provide a boastful account of the research into oceanic microbiomes conducted on board Sorcerer II, Venter’s “luxury-yacht-turned-research-vessel,” from 2003 to 2018. The authors describe how the ship collected samples of microbial life by sucking up ocean water through a pump and filtering out all but the smallest microorganisms, which they froze and sent to a lab for genomic sequencing. Their results found that “microbes were far more diverse and abundant in the oceans than anyone had previously guessed,” and that some of the viruses collected appeared to “pick up” genes from host bacteria and then deliver them to new hosts. Unfortunately, frequent comparisons of the expedition to Charles Darwin’s voyage on the Beagle come across as overblown—the claim that “humans are just one more organism deeply connected to and dependent on a planet of microbes” is hardly as revolutionary as Darwin’s theories—and the third-person descriptions of Venter as “unflappable,” “a consummate risk-taker,” and “tan and fit” (twice) feel awkwardly self-aggrandizing. This has more swagger than substance. Photos. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Explains with admirable clarity the science and technology involved in this global ocean-sampling expedition.

The Telegraph - Simon Ings

The Voyage of Sorcerer II combines panoramic linguistic imagery with trenchant scientific insights to provide the reader a virtual seat aboard the most important ship of discovery since Darwin’s Beagle. Venter reveals to us why Earth should be called ‘Water’ and why the ocean’s microscopic life is our deepest and most magical reservoir of genetic diversity. This page-turner gives each of us the thrill of seeing our planet’s largest universe through the brilliant, intrepid eyes of the scientist who has done more than anyone to unlock the secrets of life.

Martine Rothblatt

An epic travelogue, brimming with the excitement of discovery. With characteristic panache, Venter unveils the teeming array of bacteria, viruses, and eukaryotes that crowd our planet’s oceans. His research will undoubtedly shape our understanding of the global ecosystem for decades to come.

Siddhartha Mukherjee

An exhilarating account of how creative science is accomplished. Few would guess just how many microbes live with us and how much they contribute to human health, both directly in our bodies and by making sure the air we breathe supports life. I have always loved bacteria, but after reading this I have an enhanced appreciation of their value to life on this planet. I highly recommend it.

Sir Richard J. Roberts

A tour de force. Following in the paths of the Beagle and the Challenger, Venter has expanded biology’s horizons. This book explores microbial life on a global scale, providing cutting-edge solutions to problems of environmental change.

Aristides Patrinos

A fascinating inside look at Venter’s historic expeditions that makes the experiences, the analysis, and the transformative discoveries come alive.

Margaret Leinen

A ripping tale of how a sailing adventure and science can be combined to revolutionize our understanding of our bodies, the oceans, and the planet.

Jack Gilbert

Part science writing and part travelogue, the coauthors use a combination of interviews, media accounts, ship’s logs, blogs, and scientific publications to describe the mission and travels of Venter and Sorcerer II, as well as what they see as the outcomes and meanings of these expeditions…clear and enjoyable to read.

H-Net - Kristoffer Whitney

We humans may think we are the most important species on Earth, but we’re actually just bit players in a far broader and more complex microbial world. In this exciting journey into that deeper world, Venter and Duncan expand our scope of what it means to be alive.

Jamie Metzl

08/01/2023

Scientist and biotech entrepreneur Venter writes, with the help of award-winning science journalist Duncan, about his travels from Alaska to Antarctica, where he took samples of microbiotic life in all the oceans of the world over the course of 15 years. This straightforward story unfolds chronologically. Venter, who was the first to sequence the complete genome of a bacteria and is famous for mapping the human genome, traveled 65,000 miles on a 100-foot yacht to find answers to science's biggest questions about microbial life. There he and his collaborators discovered thousands of new organisms, analyzed millions of genes, and refined shotgun sequencing methodology. They also experienced storms, fires, and diplomatic snafus as they gathered additional data on algae blooms, plastic pollution, protein families, viruses, and the biological pump that captures carbon and produces oxygen in the ocean. In addition to sharing genomic data sets with the public, the team published hundreds of papers sharing their findings, such as the extreme varieties of life found in intense environments. VERDICT This well-organized narrative of exploration and scientific discovery details the work of an important global science endeavor and brings together the topics of travel, microbiology, and sailing. It efficiently covers a vast amount of time, territory, and work.—Catherine Lantz

Library Journal

2023-06-08
Seagoing research is a burgeoning popular science genre, and this is a solid addition.

The central figure is Venter, biotechnologist and entrepreneur, best known for racing (and probably winning) the competition to sequence the human genome in 2000. Less well known is the team, led by Venter, that sequenced the first cellular genome—that of a bacteria—in 1995. Fascinated by infectious disease since his Navy service in Vietnam and obsessed with learning how life works, Venter discovered that simple life forms are more complicated than scientists thought and that the genes of microbes “were trying to tell us far more than we could understand.” Never shy about taking risks and skilled at acquiring grants, Venter decided to explore the dominant life form on Earth, microorganisms, in the planet’s largest, mostly unexplored habitat: the ocean. Using his cutting-edge “shotgun genomic sequencing,” Venter’s researchers would blast DNA from an organism (or from hundreds or thousands of organisms) into short fragments and then use sequencing machines to identify them and computers to find overlaps in order to reassemble them and compare them to existing bacterial genomes. Vastly cheaper and faster than the old method of culturing individual bacteria in a petri dish, this method allowed his team and their ship, the Sorcerer II, sailing the world for 15 years, to discover millions of novel genes in thousands of new and often bizarre bacterial and viral species. Writing with award-winning science journalist Duncan, Venter presents a lively account of a groundbreaking exploration of the microbiome of the Earth’s waters. Toward the end, the authors explain a modest amount of science and deliver the obligatory bad news about humanity’s poisoning and littering of the oceans, but throughout, they emphasize adventure: storms, accidents, clashing personalities, equipment functions and malfunctions, political and bureaucratic difficulties, little-known global cultures, triumphs, and disappointments.

Important and adventurous science on the high seas.

Kirkus Reviews