I really hated school...

If you have some stereotype of a scientist in your mind, Venter probably doesn't fit it. He has scuba-dived with sharks to gather microbes in the Pacific, and spent much of the past summer sailing through the Greek isles on his 95-foot research vessel, plucking new genetic material from the sea. He rarely goes anywhere without his wife Heather and their dog Darwin. And their home high above the Pacific in La Jolla, Calif. suggests the quest for scientific truth requires no vow of poverty.

"I have been lucky," Venter acknowledged. "Sort of the accidental millionaire in terms of people keep giving me read more...