Private equity firm Natural Code LLC asks, “Where did the information for the first cell come from?” in their recently announced competition, that if successful, would yield someone of the stature of Albert Einstein who could bring staggering disruption to a variety of industries. A $5 million Evolution 2.0 Prize is being offered to the first individual who can answer that question through contest submission date of November 17, 2026.
The contest aims to speed the search for the natural systems that led to the first DNA. The Evolution 2.0 Prize takes its inspiration from the Ansari X Prize for Space Flight, whose $10 million challenge resulted in successful launch of a reusable manned space capsule into orbit, twice in two weeks
Normally operating as a private equity investment group, Natural Code LLC turned to crowd sourcing, with their Director, Perry Marshall, calling it, “…a search for the next Albert Einstein or Nikola Tesla.” The potential benefits from an answer to the question affect technology, the environment, and medicine development.
Marshall came up with the idea as well as assembling a panel to judge submissions, which includes Michael Ruse from Florida State University, Denis Noble from Oxford, and George Church from Harvard and MIT. Ruse’s work shows the relationship between religion and science, Noble and his discoveries helped make pacemakers possible, and Church’s work allowed for the first genome sequence.
“Researchers in white lab coats have attempted to solve the problem of life’s origin without success. I know the field well,” said Marshall when discussing the rationale behind his challenge. “I believe the most popular approaches are wrong-headed and will never work. We need completely new models no one has thought of yet. Crowdsourcing can unearth those. We want everybody thinking about this.”
