Dear Darwin - Episode 1

Five leading scientists address letters to Charles Darwin, expressing their thoughts on his work and legacy. Dr Craig Venter, one of the men who first successfully mapped the human genome, tells Darwin about his own experiences as a collector and hands-on biologist, from boyhood toad fascination to his Sorcerer II voyage, which circumnavigated the globe in the manner the young Darwin did aboard HMS Beagle. Nowadays, however, Craig collects genes rather than pickled specimens. He tells Darwin of his Institute's current efforts to produce the world's first synthetic lifeform, completely fabricated by man, yet otherwise untouched by nature and therefore arguably unevolved.