On the Future of Species

Adrian is a molecular biologist and co-founder and CEO of Genyro, a synthetic biology company. He has published 2 previous books on life science (Life Without Genes and An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Genetics). In this conversation we discussed his new book, cover below and the title of this post.ABI. As Adrian puts it, a monumental shift, a second genesis, the “artivolution,” ability to use a molecular Gutenberg press, it’s post-Darwinian. I made an infographic about the book and our conversation with NotebookLMThe expansion of genome sequences beyond “Fred’s library” (referring to Fred Sanger, father of genome sequencing, little green box)We talked about the jump from DNA reading to editing and now writing genomes, with the potential of the latter for both good and harm. I disagreed with Adrian about the bright prospects for curing diseases, but there are many possibilities for positive impact, such as intervening vs the climate crisis and sustainability.We also discussed the large language of life models (LLLMs) and by coincidence my colleagues and I just published a review of these in this Nature Biotechnology (←free access is hyperlinked).“It should be possible to meet most of humanity’s needs through biologically inspired designs—to solve many global problems, revolutionize health care, extend human lifespan, and create other organisms to order.”—Adrian WoolfsonIf you are into life science, I think you’ll find Adrian’s book thoughtful and provocative, even if you don’t agree with some of his optimism like a disease-free organism.The topic connects with digital biology, a theme that is approached in many editions of Ground Truths, such as this one with Patrick Hsu***************************************************Thank you Ric Bayly, Kevin Johnson, MD, YOUR DOCTOR KLOVER, Patricia Scott, Anne, and more than 600 others for tuning into my live video with Adrian Woolfson! Join me for my next live video in the app.And a big thanks to Ground Truths subscribers (> 200,000) from every US state and 212 countries. Your subscription to these free essays and podcasts makes my work in putting them together worthwhile. Please join!If you found this interesting PLEASE share it!Paid subscriptions are voluntary and all proceeds from them go to support Scripps Research. They do allow for posting comments and questions, which I do my best to respond to. Please don’t hesitate to post comments and give me feedback. Let me know topics that you would like to see covered.Many thanks to those who have contributed—they have greatly helped fund our summer internship programs for the past two years. It enabled us to accept and support 47 summer interns in 2025! We aim to accept even more of the several thousand who will apply for summer 2026. Get full access to Ground Truths at erictopol.substack.com/subscribe