14 DAY TRIAL // Google has announced it's putting its resources behind a new biotech company, Calico. The startup aims, no more, no less, than to eradicate death.
The company wants to improve the standard of living for everyone on the planet and, eventually, to get rid of the pesky thing called death.
The search giant is focused on the long-term, so there's nothing concrete on what and how it plans to achieve. But Calico means serious business; it's backed by Google's CEO Larry Page and will be run by Apple chairman Art Levinson. Levinson is also the chairman of another biotech company, Genentech.
"Illness and aging affect all our families. With some longer term, moonshot thinking around healthcare and biotechnology, I believe we can improve millions of lives. It’s impossible to imagine anyone better than Art—one of the leading scientists, entrepreneurs and CEOs of our generation—to take this new venture forward," Larry Page said in Google's announcement.
Levinson will be retaining his roles at both Genentech and Apple. In fact, none other than Apple CEO Tim Cook lent his words to the press release.
"For too many of our friends and family, life has been cut short or the quality of their life is too often lacking. Art is one of the crazy ones who thinks it doesn't have to be this way. There is no one better suited to lead this mission and I am excited to see the results," Cook said.
While details are scarce, it looks like Calico will borrow Google's method of problem solving: "throw computers at it." Using Google's massive infrastructure, Calico will be able to tackle some big data problems facing health and longevity.
However, this particular issue is going to take more than computers to fix, so Calico also wants to attract the best and brightest in the field, something else it borrowed from Google.