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Google Life Sciences transforms into Alphabet spinoff Verily

And it's verily dedicated to understanding diseases better.

Google X's Life Sciences group has grown up to become a full-fledged member of Mountain View's Alphabet Inc., and it's even taken on a new (and curious) name: Verily. Yes, that's an archaic word for "truly" and "certainly," chosen because the group wants to "reveal a true picture of health and disease." It's still the same team that was originally formed to create those contact lenses that can track diabetes, except it's bigger now, with more doctors, engineers and even a staff philosopher to understand why people do what they do.

In the video below, one of the scientists insinuates that we know more about our cars than our own bodies at this point, and the spinoff wants to change that. The "Baseline" genetics initiative Life Sciences launched in 2014 wants to define what it means to have a healthy human body. It aims to determine how to offer personalized medicine, such as having the ability to predict what makes you, in particular sick. It also wants to be able to develop techniques to better prevent diseases before they spread or to diagnose a patient before a condition does irreparable harm, so the medical community can take a proactive approach when fighting off illnesses.

Verily is already working on more wearables, including those that can detect cancer at very early stages, and other projects to reach its goals. In the future, the spinoff plans to join forces with external companies to be able to make the technologies it develops available to people who verily need them.