Stamping his mark – on the bacterial genome

Posted on January 29, 2008 by Simon

Andrew Pollack in the NYTimes reveals the secret message implanted in the recently announced synthetic bacterial genome.

You were expecting poetry perhaps? The secret messages hidden in scientist J. Craig Venter’s synthetic bacterial genome have now been revealed. They are — his name, and that of his research institute and co-workers.

I can’t decide whether this is kinda cute, kinda arrogant, or totally cool in a yay-for-hubris sort of way. Answers on the back of a postcard, please.

This entry was posted in bacteria, genetics, people. Bookmark the permalink.

8 Responses to Stamping his mark – on the bacterial genome

  1. JSinger says:
    January 30, 2008 at 5:33 am

    I can’t decide whether this is kinda cute, kinda arrogant, or totally cool in a yay-for-hubris sort of way.

    I vote for “totally cool in a yay-for-hubris sort of way”. Science needs one, and only one, Craig Venter.

  2. mr. gunn says:
    January 30, 2008 at 5:55 am

    Yay for hubris. I’d have at least put my name in there if I did it, along with something cool.

  3. Mark Boguski says:
    January 30, 2008 at 6:14 am

    Not very original. I slipped a secret message into Michael Crichton’s sequel to Jurassic Park in 1995 which was detected and written about by a number of people. See
    http://books.google.com/books?id=aIhu14SUsNIC&pg=PA84&lpg=PA84&dq=%22mark+was+here+nih%22&source=web&ots=tY1oUlZ-F0&sig=xsS4t1-edaKf-yLH89zpglCrATc

    This example has also been used in various bioinformatics curricula and problem sets. See
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Class/FieldGuide/problem_set.html

    The whole thing was inspired by my detection of Crichton’s forged dinosaur sequence in 1990.
    See
    http://www.markboguski.net/publications_PDFs/BioTechniques%201992.pdf

  5. Simon Greenhill says:
    January 31, 2008 at 8:22 pm

    Thanks for the comments, guys!

    Mark: those links are awesome – very very cool, thanks :)

    Kevin: I suspect the gene-jocks have *way* too much fun coming up with cute gene names that make funny reading!

    –Simon

  6. Mark Boguski says:
    February 1, 2008 at 12:40 am

    When I published my “book report,” I sent Michael Crichton a reprint and I got an amusing letter back from him. I’ll try to find it and post a scan. The late Stephen J. Gould even commented on it. Again, I’ll try to find his correspondence and post it for you. -MB

  8. Simon Greenhill says:
    February 7, 2008 at 12:11 am

    Mark, thanks for sharing those letters. I loved the Crichton anecdote – it’s great to see someone taking accuracy seriously! (& I’m a huge fan of Gould too)

    –Simon