Why Does Eric Betzig Call Biology the Last Frontier?

Eric Betzig says biology is the last frontier. He studies it at the last stage of his career and says he is never going to be a biologist. Mystery sits everywhere, and people understand so little that biology is still in the pre-Kepler era and the phlogiston era. So many things people think they know are bullshit. Biology is the final frontier because it is the most complex matter in the known universe.

A virtual cell, the goal people say they want now, will take generations, if not eons, if it ever happens. The missing piece is enough mechanistic understanding. Eric Betzig says people do not grasp how big the mystery is. Asked whether there is a SpaceX of biology and where a biologist should go, Eric Betzig says the mysteries leave many opportunities on a small scale. Building an empire is unnecessary. Fusion and quantum computing need bigger resources. Biology still leaves room to do the work small.