Want to know what exactly is in the Sargasso Sea? Give him a week, and world-renowned scientist Dr. Craig Venter figures he can tell you - in genetic detail.

Best known for speeding the sequencing of the human genome to a timely conclusion in 2000, Dr. Venter is heading to the Sargasso Sea in search of building blocks for his latest mission.

He intends, with an optimistic audacity made credible only by his previous achievements, to save the planet.

To do so he either hopes to find - or to build from scratch - and organism which can safely clean carbon dioxide and produce a clean fuel source such as hydrogen.

Having recently joined the Board of the Bermuda Biological Station for Research in Ferry Reach, he'll be working closely with local scientists to bring some of his science fiction-like ideas to fruition.

BBSR Director Dr. Tony Knap shed some light on the BBSR's partnership with Dr. Venter and some of the exciting new scientific initiatives that will arise from it.

Dr. Venter has his hands in a few scientific pies.

Working with BBSR, the scientist plans to map the genome of every single organism in the Sargasso Sea.

"We have spoken about doing the genomes of bacteria off Bermuda in conjunction with our long-time series programme which is funded by the US National Science Foundation," Dr. Knap said.

"We'll be looking at the genes of organisms to explain how these organisms work. We're going to try and sequence - map the genome of - a mixture of bacteria, sampled from 80 miles off Bermuda - which is the Sargasso Sea."

The work will compliment BBSR's new ocean genomics programme and speed the Bio Station toward its goal of completing the longest time series on ocean organisms.

"We know more about the ocean off Bermuda than anywhere else in the world, so it really makes sense to start here," Dr. Knap said.

Dr. Venter is prepared to sink millions into the project.

After patenting a method of rapid gene-decoding which came to be known as "shotgun sequencing" and supercomputers to do it, Dr. Venter tied a consortium of scientists with $3 billion in funding from the American government, to decode the human genome. He became very wealthy in the process.

The Human Genome project, once anticipated to take decades, was completed in less than three years after Dr. Venter's team sequenced millions of chemical-base pair and increased pressure on the publicly funded group.

With new technology, Dr. Venter believes he can decode the mysteries of life even more quickly and redirect them toward ultimately saving life as we know it.

"He's hired Hamilton Smith, a Nobel laureate, who also worked on the human genome. He'll be doing the analysis. We will be collecting the samples and DNA and they will sequence them," Dr. Knap told The Royal Gazette of the work planned in the waters off Bermuda.

The samples will be collected, cleaned up and the DNA extracted in Bermuda and then be sent overseas to be sequenced on the supercomputers used by Dr. Venter's institute.

BBSR has one sequencer, but a project of this size and nature would require hundreds.

Dr. Venter told Wired Magazine, he believes he can sequence the organisms of the Sargasso Sea in a week.

"The Sargasso is nutrient-poor, so the number of species there and the density of life is much lower," he told the magazine. "Later we plan to test whether we can take all the DNA from one of Yellowstone's volcanic pools and work out what is in there.

"It would have been inconceivable to most scientists even five years ago; they would have said it is impossible in terms of the processing power. Now we think the Sargasso Sea experiment of sequencing every organism will take about a week."

Dr. Knap told The Royal Gazette it might take a little longer. In just one drop of Sargasso seawater, there are known to be roughly 10,000 of one organism called Sar-2, he said. What else is there, is what the researchers hope to find out but certainly there are millions of previously unknown genomes.

But, when one is working with Dr. Craig Venter one learns never to say never.

"One of the great things about working with somebody like Craig Venter is that all of sudden things that seemed impossible become possible," Dr. Knap said. "He has a way of making things happen and that makes it very exciting for us to work with him."

To sequence the DNA of the organisms collected, a state of the art centre capable of doing more than 100 million sequences a year will be built at Dr. Venter's Institute for Biological Energy Alternatives.

"Keep in mind that 26 million (sequences) gave us the human genome," Dr. Venter told Wired. "We're going to be trying some new technologies that might allow us to get information on maybe 10,000 genomes an hour."

Dr. Venter is looking to the sea for planet-saving information. But if he doesn't find it there, he has a back-up plan - he'll use information he finds in other organisms' genes to build it.

In a separate initiative, Drs. Venter and Smith have just received a $3 million grant from the United States Department of Energy to create a life form in a laboratory dish.

Not to run before they walk, the scientists hope to build a bug with the minimum genetic component needed to sustain life in a single-celled organism.

There starting with genetic material from Mycoplasma genitalium - a self-replicating organism that, with 517 genes, has the smallest known complement of genetic material.

The organism lives in the genital tract of humans and is though to sometimes cause inflammation of the urethra (urethritis).

The scientists hope to hone that material down to around 300 genes and see if it will live and replicate. If they succeed, the minimal organism could be bio-engineered - by gradually adding genetic material of other organisms - to serve a number of purposes.

While Dr. Venter hopes to channel it toward tackling global warming and pollution, the scientists are not unaware that in the age of global terrorism, it could also have a much more deadly potential.

According to an article in the Washington Post, that possibility led Dr. Venter to convene a panel of ethicists and religious leaders to debate the merits of the project. The panel decided its ultimate goal of helping mankind made it an ethical endeavour but the scientists will have to take great lengths to protect their discoveries falling into the wrong hands.

They are also taking steps to ensure the biological entity itself does not run amok. The first gene they will delete from the bacterium is the one that enables it to adhere to human cells.

They will make it so weak and delicate that it would be incapable of surviving outside laboratory conditions, the scientists said.

But one day, the bio-engineered organism might receive a few genes from an organism from the Sargasso Sea and emerge to be a salvaging force to counter the damage humans have unleashed on the planet for centuries.

And the impossible will once again seem possible with a little help from science.