Google's Life Sciences team, the arm of the company working on biology projects like a "smart" contact lens for diabetics, has a new name as of Monday: Verily.
The Shakespearean-sounding moniker is part of a wave of rebranding that began this summer when Google restructured and placed its smaller, non-core internet businesses under a new parent holding company, Alphabet. Google's Life Sciences division, which had been part of Google's secret R&D lab Google(x), was one of those companies.
This is the group of biologists, immunologists, oncologists, and nanoparticle engineers chugging away on such headline-grabbing efforts as a wristband that monitors health signs in real time, a study that sequences people's genomes to build a complete picture of what human health should look like, a contact lens with an embedded glucose sensor for diabetics, and tiny magnetic particles that would patrol the body for diseases. (Note that it will probably be a long time before any of these make it into your doctor's office.)
So why the name Verily? It means "certainly" or "truly," and according to Merriam Webster, was first used in 14th century Middle English. “Only through the truth are we going to defeat Mother Nature,” CEO Andy Conrad told STAT.
Defeat Mother Nature — no big deal.
With the name change, the team has also organized itself into four groups (hardware, software, clinical, and research) and begun to focus in particular on heart disease and diabetes. Last month, for example, it partnered with the American Heart Association in a $50 million effort to research the causes and drivers of cardiovascular disease.
Google's known for giving some of its projects names with multiple meanings and historical references. Calico, Google's biotech focused on developing therapies that extend lives, sounds like shorthand for the California Life Co. — but also refers to the saying that cats have nine lives. (Calico is separate from Google's Life Sciences — er, Verily.) Project Jacquard is the name for Google's and Levi's dual attempt to manufacture smart clothes, a likely reference to Joseph-Marie Jacquard, the French Revolution-era inventor of the Jacquard loom. Other quirky names: Project Ara (modular smartphones), Project Tango (motion-tracking and depth perception on smartphones), and Project Soli (a tiny sensor that picks up subtle human motions).
