15th November 2025

Today Gonville and Caius celebrated the benefactors of the college, going right back to the days of Edmund Gonville.  We had yet again been invited.

The weather was a little damp, resulting in chaos on the roads in Cambridge. We dumped the car at the playing fields, and both walked to the hotel, keeping pace with and overtaking the traffic. At the hotel we changed into our glad rags, this time I had the correct socks, no Download logos. After the complaints last year about my shirt from R, I had lashed out on a new dress shirt. Looked fine, but R still had complaints, something to-do with the studs. She later found that Richard’s shirt was far superior as it had removable studs.

Ready, we walked to Caius College where we were immediately welcomed by the porter, removed our coats (R even changed from boots to shoes, as we greeted Richard & Andrea. We each downed a quick cup of tea, before going to the lecture theatre to listen to a talk by Dr Adrian Woolfson (1988) entitled “On the Future of Species: Authoring Life by means of Artificial Biological Intelligence “.

He talked about the “Spaghetti Code” of Evolution on how DNA is “unfathomably complicated” with over 5 billion years of redundancies. Dr. Woolfson’s central argument is that biological evolution is not an efficient engineer; it is a messy tinkerer, hence the “biological spaghetti code” analogy. It is full of ancient viruses, broken genes, and evolutionary accidents that have accumulated over eons. This complexity makes it dangerous to simply “edit” (using tools like CRISPR) because we don’t always know what those redundancies do. The proposed solution is to move to “authoring”  new DNA. The goal is to write clean, optimized code from scratch, detached from the messy history of Darwinian evolution.

This is where AI steps in as the key to solving the complexity of DNA, Large Language of Life Models are being trained on the entire biological tree of life. AI allows us to verify changes to DNA before they are made. Instead of guessing, AI can predict how a new DNA sequence will behave, allowing us to “debug” genetic diseases (like cystic fibrosis or Huntington’s) before implementing them in a patient.

He also touched on DNA storage, which is a major focus of the “New Age of Synthetic Biology.” The storage density of DNA is so huge, that all the world’s digital data could essentially fit into a sugar-cube-sized container of DNA. Humanity generates zettabytes of data. Silicon chips are hitting physical limits. DNA is the most dense storage medium known in the universe. Unlike hard drives that degrade in decades, DNA is stable for thousands of years (which is why we can still sequence fossils). This makes it the perfect archive for human history.

His talk overran a little, and as we headed to the chapel for the service, the choristers were all outside waiting for us. We listened to the excellent Caius Choir, who we were quite near to. There was the usual history of the benefactors and the admission of two new members to the title of Gonville Fellow Benefactor. The sermon was by the college’s Dean’s Vicar, Revd Canon Dr Nicholas Thistlethwaite.

Back to the Senior Common Room for some fizz, and then the feast in hall. All four courses had excellent wine pairings, then fruit, cheese, coffee and chocolates. The cheese course may have been a little sparse this year, it all disappeared very quickly. The chef must be congratulated on serving around 180 people with such excellent food. I went for the meat offerings while R went vegetarian.  She was a little disapointed as some dishes were repeats from last year. If we are invited next year, R says she will be going for the meat option.

I spent time talking to my neighbouring, fellow guests, the wives of two alumni. One was from Cambridgeshire farming stock, to whom I talked about holidays, while the other appeared to be involved with university building planning and the replacement of the “horrible” 1960s buildings.  We also had a speech from the new master, Professor Gilbertson the 44th Master of Caius. A very different speech to the ones given by Pippa. As is usual we were again entertained by the choir.

After the meal, we retired to the Senior Combination Room for a nightcap. Some excellent malt was consumed by myself & Andrea. We managed to make the 11:45 bus back to the station and hence the hotel.

Next morning we met up again with Richard and Andrea for coffee and cake at Harvey Court. Unfortunately, on a Sunday the coffee shop Florey, does not serve savoury items! We said our adieus and departed homewards.