In March of 2010 John Newling was approached to develop a work in collaboration with Bronislaw Szerszynski of the Department of Sociology and the ESRC Centre for the Economic and the Social Aspects of Genomics (CESAGen), Lancaster University. The work that emerged 'Synthia II (code / soil / life)' consisted of Craig Venter's synthetic life form 'Synthia'. Growing in the soil was a Moringa Oleifera tree germinated by Newling in his studio