Description
Our destinies lie in our DNA. Compressed, at the moment of our conception, into tiny, gossamer bundles, this 'most golden of molecules' defines each of us uniquely for along its delicate, twisting strands, the alphabet of life is etched in chemicals that will determine whether we will be short or tall, healthy or sickly, intelligent or slow, blond and blue-eyed or dark, with smouldering brown eyes.
Unravelling the complex machinery involved in this process has been one of modern science's most exciting achievements, a story of inspiration and dedication (and occasional lost opportunities) that began with Mendel's discovery in the nineteenth century of the laws of inheritance. It has progressed today to the creation of biology's most ambitious undertaking: the Human Genome Project sometimes known as the Book of Man.
This mighty enterprise, biology's equivalent of the Apollo moon programme, is audacious in scope. It aims to uncover all the 100,000 genes that control human development and to detail the DNA alphabet of each. This knowledge is already revolutionizing our fundamental self-awareness. The entire molecular process of cancer causation is now being laid out before us, while the genes responsible for inherited illnesses, immune disorders (like rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes), psychiatric disorders and other ailments are being exposed.
And that is not all. We are learning much about our own history as a brash new species that poured out of Africa to conquer the world 100,000 years ago. Forensic science, and the high-tech hunt for criminals, is also being transformed. In the process, however, this biological progress is also raising vital questions about the ethics and moral side-effects that accompany these radical genetic breakthroughs.
This, then, is The Book of Man, the story of mankind's greatest voyage of self-discovery, a history of a fledgling science that will soon change all our lives.
