Last week I had the opportunity to visit the J. Craig Venter Institute, which is in temporary headquarters in the La Jolla Science Park. A large building is planned for the future on university land. I reminded Craig of my desire to participate in his research in any way I could — especially identifying genomes [...]

This week I’m planning to spend Wednesday afternoon at the Venter Institute here in La Jolla. As you know, I am quite interested in Craig Venter’s genomics work, and the promise it holds for applications such as genome sequencing of mammals — including humans — and sequencing the genes of plant life and ocean organisms. [...]

I spent the last week recovering from the trip to Washington. There were no major occurrences over this time — just routine. I’m still finishing off the first of the genomics books I’m reading. This book is titled Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters and it was written by Matt Ridley. The [...]

We had the unusually good fortune of attending the 2008 Horatio Alger awards ceremony in Washington D.C., where I was presented with the award by Mike Yanney. Horatio Alger wrote stories about people who rose from “rags to riches,” starting off poor or disadvantaged and ending up as solid and successful members of society. Horatio [...]

By the way, I forgot to mention on my blog that there had been another event recently at which I was honored. This was the CONNECT organization’s Hall of Fame. CONNECT is a semi-unique organization closely associated with UCSD and the city of San Diego. Its purpose is to connect venture capitalists and other sources [...]