In the race to map the human genome, Craig Venter is credited with speeding up the discovery of the whole human genome by about five years-an incredible step forward for this type of research. Venter’s whole-genome shotgun sequencing approach was cheaper, more accurate, and much faster than other mapping methods. Though his firm, Celera Genomics, shared credit with the rival Human Genome Project, Venter’s method was undoubtedly the superior one and the catalyst for the record-breaking efforts. Personally, Venter has proved to be a passionate personality in the staid world of science, funding his own research and making as many allies as enemies. In Craig Venter, read how this formerly carefree California surfer and Vietnam veteran became a forerunner in the heated race to map the human genome and the consequences such information has had on science and society at large.