If you’re like us, you’ve slogged through scientific journals and rummaged through mainstream news sites and surfed countless health portals and tech blogs in your quest to make sense of the story you know is fundamentally the most important one today: how biology and technology are coming together to help us all live healthier, happier, and longer lives.

The Digital Revolution brought us to this point, where brain mapping, genome sequencing, gene editing, synthetic biology, 3D printing, and artificial intelligence are not just feasible, but breaking out all over the planet, in research labs, food labs, and garage labs, in fitness centers, mindfulness retreats, fertility clinics, and retirement communities.

That’s why we created proto.life: to report from the front lines of this neobiological revolution. We add what we all crave, which is context and meaning, and we nurture a community for you, the amazing people making it happen. You are the makers, leaders, and early adopters of the science, the tools, and the ideas that are changing our world and our species.

Our beat includes the latest research and developments from the fields of neuroscience, genetics, longevity, and the microbiome. We cover the future of food, sex, fertility, and death. We’re tracking biohackers, synthetic biology, and human performance. This is the story of our times, and we’ve got some of the best editors, journalists, science fiction writers, artists, and thinkers to cover it for us, starting with proto.life Editorial Director Jason Socrates Bardi, and including Po Bronson, Esther Dyson, David Ewing Duncan, David Eagleman, Juan Enriquez, Ted Greenwald, Andrew Hessel, Steven Kotler, Raymond McCauley, Kat McGowan, Eliot Peper, Mallory Pickett, Michael Pollan, Nicole Prause, Daisy Robinton, Amanda Schaffer, Karen Weintraub, and Britt Wray.

For now, proto.life is self-funded. We have no outside investors to answer to, and no conflicts of interest to disclose. It is our intention to build this into a self-sustaining business by bringing on sponsors, introducing a paid subscription option, and producing events. If you have an interest in supporting our journalism or communicating with our community, please contact [email protected].

Homo sapiens is seizing the future of the species, and we want to get it right, so please feed us your questions, suggestions, criticisms, and introductions. And join us on this remarkable adventure. It’s going to be a hell of a ride.

Jane Metcalfe
Founder