168. Chemistry, Evolved

Frances Arnold pioneered the process of directed evolution — mimicking natural selection to create new enzymes that have changed everything from agriculture to laundry.

• SOURCES:• Frances Arnold (cce.caltech.edu/people/frances-h-arnold), professor of chemistry at the California Institute of Technology.

• RESOURCES: • "Innovation by Evolution: Bringing New Chemistry to Life (nobelprize.org/uploads/2018/10/arnold-lecture.…)," by Frances Arnold (Nobel Lecture, 2018).
• "Bacteria taught to bond carbon and silicon for the first time (newscientist.com/article/2114054-bacteria-taug…)," by Aviva Rutkin (New Scientist, 2016).
• "Directed evolution of cytochrome c for carbon–silicon bond formation: Bringing silicon to life (science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aah6219)," by S. B. Jennifer Kan, Russell D. Lewis, Kai Chen, and Frances H. Arnold (Science, 2016).
• "The Director of Evolution (slate.com/technology/2013/03/directed-evolutio…)," by Jennifer Ouellette (Slate, 2013).
• "Engineered ketol-acid reductoisomerase and alcohol dehydrogenase enable anaerobic 2-methylpropan-1-ol production at theoretical yield in Escherichia coli (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21515217)," by Sabine Bastian, Xiang Liu, Joseph T. Meyerowitz, Christopher D. Snow, Mike M. Y. Chen, and Frances H. Arnold (Metabolic Engineering, 2011).
• Gevo (gevo.com).
• Provivi (provivi.com/en).

• EXTRAS:• "How to Help Kids Succeed (freakonomics.com/podcast/how-to-help-kids-succ…)," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2025).
• The Levitt Lab (thelevittlab.com).

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