上个月，谷歌（Google）又做出了一石激起千层浪的惊人之举：宣布成立Calico公司。这家“全新的公司将致力于改善人类健康，尤其是应对与衰老及其相关疾病的挑战”。它将由基因泰克公司（Genentech）的前首席执行官阿特•列文森来执掌——列文森为了在谷歌的死对头苹果公司（Apple）担任董事会主席，实际上几年前就离开了谷歌董事会，而且今后他还将继续担任苹果董事会主席，因此这个任命真是有点出人意料。

    但除此之外，就没什么特别的消息了。于是上周我在硅谷挖掘了些消息，了解到了更多内幕。

    业内认为，Calico是比尔•马里斯的创意。这位谷歌创投（Google Ventures）的执行合伙人一度在Investor AB投资公司担任生物技术投资经理。据业内人士称，马里斯曾在仔细研究生命科学产业后发现，数以百计的公司都在致力于治疗各种疾病或努力减少它们的危害。而所有这些努力的目标不是为了延年益寿，就是为了提高生活质量。

    但是，却没有一家公司在专门挖掘众多疾病和死亡的根本原因。换句话说，我们都在不断地老去，用更学术的方式表述就是，我们的机体是从细胞层面开始衰退的——这很大程度上要归咎于基因物质的退化。

    既然现在整个基因图谱都已破解，马里斯开始思索，是否有可能研究导致衰老的基因层面的原因，同时研制出抗衰老的药物（他的这一想法很大程度上是受与未来学家和谷歌员工雷蒙德•库茨魏尔谈话的启发）。 比如，是不是能研究全球上千名健康的90岁高龄老人的基因图谱？他们在基因上有哪些相似之处？或者他们长寿的秘密在于，影响多数人的致病因素并没有影响到他们。就算这种研究最后没能让人延寿，但它可能至少能让其他活不到这么高龄的人提高生活质量。

    于是马里斯说干就干，开始四处募资，主要对象就是那些富有的公司高管和风险投资家们。其中一些受邀对象表示，马里斯给他们讲了一个向精灵许愿的比喻：如果一个精灵让你许三个愿，那你第一个愿望肯定是能再许一百万个愿。但是我们的现实生活却恰似这三个愿望。我们并不知道自己的寿命是三天还是三千天，只知道总有寿终正寝的那天。如果你必须投资点什么的话，难道不应该是投资设法多活几天（至少活得更有质量一点）吗？

    马里斯拜访的这些人之中，有一位正是谷歌的联合创始人兼特别项目总监谢尔盖•布林，他对马里斯的提议明确表示有意投资。但是随着布林、马里斯和谷歌首席执行官拉里•佩奇之间的谈话逐渐深入，他们三人开始形成了一个共识，即最好的做法是用谷歌自己的钱（董事会后来也同意了）来支持这整个项目。关于谷歌准备砸多少钱，我听到过好几个版本的说法，但现在能肯定的是，我们目前谈到的只是几十亿美元投资计划的一小部分（也就是部分款项）而已。谷歌自己还未对此做出评论，不过很有可能它会在下一财季的收益报告（已经定于下周发布）中提到一些细节。

    Google (GOOG) last month made waves in the biotech world by announcing the formation of Calico, a "new company that will focus on health and well-being, in particular the challenge of aging and associated diseases." It would be led by ex-Genentech CEO Art Levinson – a bit of a surprising move given that Levinsohn effectively left the Google board several years ago so that he could remain chairman at rival Apple (where he will continue to serve).

    Beyond that, nada. So I did a bit of digging while in Silicon Valley last week, and have learned much more.

    Calico is considered the brainchild of Bill Maris, the Google Ventures managing partner who once was a biotech portfolio manager at Investor AB. Sources says that Maris looked at the life sciences landscape, and saw hundreds of companies all focused on curing or minimizing various diseases and conditions. In all cases, the goal was either to prolong life and/or improve the quality of life.

    What didn't exist, however, were companies focusing on the root cause of so much of this disease and death. Namely, that we all keep getting older. Or, put another way, that our bodies begin to fail on a cellular level – largely due to degradation of our genetic materials.

    Now that the entire genome had been coded, Maris wondered if it was possible to actually study the genetic causes of aging and then create drugs to address them (a question that was heavily influenced by talks with futurist and Googler Ray Kurzweil). For example, what if you examined the genomes of thousands of healthy 90 year-olds from all parts of the world? What genetic similarities do they have? Or, perhaps, what happens to most of us that didn't happen to them. Even if this didn't result in longer life, it perhaps could at least lead to an improved quality of life for folks on the back nine.

    So Maris began raising money, largely from wealthy tech executives and venture capitalists. Some of those who got the pitch said that Maris gave a genie analogy (which I'll paraphrase): If a genie gave you three wishes, your first wish would be for a million more wishes. But our lives are like those three wishes. We don't know if it's three days or three thousand, but we know it's finite. If you have to invest in anything, shouldn't it be in trying to get more days (or at least more quality days).

    One of those Maris called on was Google co-founder and director of special projects Sergey Brin, who expressed interest in investing. But as conversations progressed between Brin, Maris and Google CEO Larry Page, a consensus began to form that the best course of action would be to fund the entire project off of Google's balance sheet (the board would later agree). I have heard various numbers as to the exact Google commitment, but for now can only really say that we're talking about a minimum of hundreds of millions (tranched out, of course). The company itself still isn't commenting, although it's possible that there will be some specifics in its next quarterly earnings report (due next week).