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WELCOME SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY Accelerating bioscience ltby Ma isa L The idea of the lone scientist plugging away at a difficult problem for years is not really how science is done these days. But you can still find scientists who have devoted their whole career to one question or idea. For this issue, I loved talking to Leonard Rome, a professor at UCLA, about his decades trying to understand mysterious cellular particles known as vaults (p18). He is now passing on his passion to a new generation, and hopes someone will figure out what vaults do before he dies. I was struck by the contrast in scientific styles when I later interviewed Ben Novak, lead scientist at Revive & Restore. The biotech organisation is impatient to develop and deploy cutting-edge genetic and reproductive technologies to halt or reverse species loss in different contexts. This includes controversial ideas such as ‘de-extinction’ (see p12). Novak’s attitude to conventions like peer review and journal publication may surprise many. If such organisations seem to be rushing science along, what about AI-powered bioscience? In Time magazine, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently said that biotech is on the cusp of its ‘ChatGPT 2 / THE BIOLOGIST / Vol 71 No 2 Tom Ireland Editor of The Biologist moment’, referring to the AI chatbot that has wowed the world. Schmidt, who now leads the US’s National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology, says AI will soon “be able to help us run through millions of theoretical and actual biological experiments, more accurately predicting outcomes without arduous trial and error – vastly accelerating the rate of new discoveries”. This accelerated science poses a mix of opportunities and risks. How do we translate all these discoveries into safe, scalable, affordable products and applications? Are sufficient guardrails in place to ensure this explosion of scientific progress will only be used for good? Will AI be able to tell us what cellular vaults do? The RSB’s policy teams are exploring these and many other questions about AI, and we’ll be covering them in a special issue of The Biologist later in the year. For now, please enjoy this issue, which as always celebrates the human side of bioscience – from dealing with failure (p30) to joining committees (p10) – and let us know your thoughts on how AI might impact what you do in the future. Email biologist@rsb.org.uk
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BioPic THISMIA THAITHONGIANA By Chatree Lertsintanakorn, Thailand This image of Thismia thaithongiana, a rare plant that looks like a ghostly owl, was taken in the Umphang Wildlife Sanctuary, Tak Province, Thailand, winning gold in the plants and fungi category of the World Nature Photography Awards 2024. Vol 71 No 2 / THE BIOLOGIST / 3

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WELCOME

SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY

Accelerating bioscience ltby

Ma isa

L

The idea of the lone scientist plugging away at a difficult problem for years is not really how science is done these days.

But you can still find scientists who have devoted their whole career to one question or idea. For this issue, I loved talking to Leonard Rome, a professor at UCLA, about his decades trying to understand mysterious cellular particles known as vaults (p18). He is now passing on his passion to a new generation, and hopes someone will figure out what vaults do before he dies.

I was struck by the contrast in scientific styles when I later interviewed Ben Novak, lead scientist at Revive & Restore. The biotech organisation is impatient to develop and deploy cutting-edge genetic and reproductive technologies to halt or reverse species loss in different contexts. This includes controversial ideas such as ‘de-extinction’ (see p12). Novak’s attitude to conventions like peer review and journal publication may surprise many.

If such organisations seem to be rushing science along, what about AI-powered bioscience? In Time magazine, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently said that biotech is on the cusp of its ‘ChatGPT

2 / THE BIOLOGIST / Vol 71 No 2

Tom Ireland Editor of The Biologist moment’, referring to the AI chatbot that has wowed the world. Schmidt, who now leads the US’s National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology, says AI will soon “be able to help us run through millions of theoretical and actual biological experiments, more accurately predicting outcomes without arduous trial and error – vastly accelerating the rate of new discoveries”.

This accelerated science poses a mix of opportunities and risks. How do we translate all these discoveries into safe, scalable, affordable products and applications? Are sufficient guardrails in place to ensure this explosion of scientific progress will only be used for good? Will AI be able to tell us what cellular vaults do?

The RSB’s policy teams are exploring these and many other questions about AI, and we’ll be covering them in a special issue of The Biologist later in the year.

For now, please enjoy this issue, which as always celebrates the human side of bioscience – from dealing with failure (p30) to joining committees (p10) – and let us know your thoughts on how AI might impact what you do in the future.

Email biologist@rsb.org.uk

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