Aggregated News
Silicon Valley has an obsession with immortality, and not just as science fiction. Many people here say they believe that the day when technology makes it possible to live forever is just around the corner.
On Wednesday, some of the tech world’s most formidable players announced an effort to get closer to that point, with a new biotechnology company to fight the aging process and the diseases that accompany it.
The company, Calico, was conceived and backed by Google, whose co-founder and chief executive, Larry Page, portrayed it as one of the company’s long-shot projects, like self-driving cars. Arthur D. Levinson, 63, the former chief executive of Genentech and the chairman of Apple, agreed to be the chief executive and is also an investor.
“This was just so out of the box that I instantly got extremely excited about it,” Dr. Levinson said in an interview. He said he had turned down other offers to run companies since stepping down as chief executive of Genentech in 2009, after the company’s acquisition by Roche.
Dr. Levinson said that at first Calico...
On Wednesday, some of the tech world’s most formidable players announced an effort to get closer to that point, with a new biotechnology company to fight the aging process and the diseases that accompany it.
The company, Calico, was conceived and backed by Google, whose co-founder and chief executive, Larry Page, portrayed it as one of the company’s long-shot projects, like self-driving cars. Arthur D. Levinson, 63, the former chief executive of Genentech and the chairman of Apple, agreed to be the chief executive and is also an investor.
“This was just so out of the box that I instantly got extremely excited about it,” Dr. Levinson said in an interview. He said he had turned down other offers to run companies since stepping down as chief executive of Genentech in 2009, after the company’s acquisition by Roche.
Dr. Levinson said that at first Calico...