This past week I attended an event at the San Diego Natural History Museum in Balboa Park, led by Craig Venter. He talked about his many discoveries using his sailboat and my motorboat for sampling the ocean, and pointed out how many new species of ocean life he has discovered as a result. According to Craig, he has discovered hundreds of thousands of genes, which will be of importance in the medical and alternative energy fields. As I have previously discussed, Craig and his organization are vigorously pursuing the potential commercialization of algae-based biofuels, including jet fuel. Craig’s team has met with some success, but commercially significant quantities are probably still 10 years off. We are getting closer.

On Sunday night my wife Betty, daughter Mary Ann, and son Jim had dinner at the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club with UCSD engineering professor Joe Pasquale, his wife Barbara, and two Ph.D. candidates from the UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering. We have been supporting these two students for the past three years as they worked on their degrees under Joe. They have one year to go, but they already appear to be making progress on wireless solutions for the telecommunications industry. Overall, I was quite impressed.

– Bob