Can we understand life?

Yes,we know tonnes about how biology works, but true enlightenment in science is the realisation of how little we know. Science is a never ending question, and as long as there are living things to study, the saga continues.

I consult others for the big questions. Kurt Vonnegut said “Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you’ve got a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies – God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.”

All I know about humans is that making predictions is hard, especially about the future. But as long as we keep having babies, we’ll keep evolving, and I’ll have stuff to write about.

I’ve been working on two big films out this year, both amazing in different ways. The first is called Life, set on the International Space Station, with Jake Gyllenhall and Ryan Reynolds, and a rather aggressive organism that I helped design. The second is called Annihilation, directed by Alex Garland (with whom I worked on Ex Machina), and stars Natalie Portman and Oscar Isaac. That has an alien too, the likes of which you have never seen before, I promise.

The biggest challenge we face is the tyranny of idiocy. Climate change is real. Vaccines work and are safe. Evolution is a fact. There are dark forces afoot in this world. But science is a constant revolution, and rebellions are built on hope.

If they stay awake that’s a boon, if they’ve learnt something then I’m doing my job