In 1993 and '94, Davis created The Riddle of Life, another work that explores DNA's poetic capacity and also pays homage to genetic pioneers Max Delbrück and George Beadle. In the late 1950s, the pair sent each other messages encoded in the four-letter language of DNA. Delbrück created one message with multicolored toothpicks that he shipped to Stockholm when Beadle won the Nobel Prize. It read: "I am the riddle of life. Know me and you will know yourself."

After figuring out Delbrück's coding scheme, Davis re-created the Riddle of Life message. He too used toothpicks and also added broomsticks, fence posts he brought to Harvard Yard, light-activated phosphors, and actual DNA (which Beadle and Delbrück probably could not have synthesized in the '50s).