The Importance Of The Human Genome Project Essay -- Science Genetics B

The Importance Of The Human Genome foxThis is the outstanding achievement not only of our lifetime, but of human hi invention. I say this, because the Human Genome reckon has the potential to impact the life of ever soy person on this planet. It is a giant resource that will agitate mankind, much like the printing press did.The famous words of Dr. jam Watson resonated as a victory bell, signaling the successful completion of what numerous deemed the boldest undertaking in the history of biology The Human Genome Project (2003). On the fiftieth anniversary of the day that forever changed science the day Watson and his confrere Francis Crick unraveled the secret of life, the structure of deoxyribonucleic acid the world was presented with another majestic discovery the complete sequence of the human genome. Almost immediately, uproar move throughout the science community and the world-at-large, as many believed that the solution to our problems had in the long run arrived the t rue secret of life the panacea that would dissipate the ominous clouds of unsoundness and suffering. Yet, as often happens when a promising new idea is presented on tenuous grounds, the revelers had only heard a fraction of the entire story their grand hopes were born primarily of imagination. But when all the celebratory confetti had cleared, thither stood defiantly amidst all the hoopla voices of reason. Molecular anthropologist Jonathan Marks voice was peerless of these. In an excerpt from his literary work What It Means to be 98% Chimpanzee Apes, People, and Their Genes, Marks undermines the importance of the Human Genome Project and our genes, advocating instead a more rational and moderate view of them. By exposing three of the Project s flaws, he hopes to convince... ...ealize that our genes are but one aspect of our history, that in that respect are many other histories that are even more all-important(prenominal) it is a delusion to think that genomics in isolation wil l ever tell us what it means to be human (2001, paragraph 11). Indeed, everything is not solely in our genes.Works CitedBeckwith, J. (2002). Geneticists in society, society in genetics. In J. Alper (Ed.), The double-edged helix (pp. 39-57). Baltimore The Johns Hopkins University Press.Lewontin, R.C. (1991). Causes and their effects. Biology as ideology the doctrine of desoxyribonucleic acid (pp. 41-57). New York HarperPerennial.Marks, J. (2002). The meaning of human variation. What it means to be 98% chimpanzee apes, people, and their genes (pp. 88-95). Berkeley University of California Press.Paabo, S. (2001). The human genome and our view of ourselves. Science Magazine 291, 1219-1220.