The complexities and wonder of how the inanimate chemicals that are our genetic code give rise to the imponderables of the human spirit should keep poets and philosophers inspired for millennia
(Craig J. Venter)
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Notes
- 1.
ThisarticleispartoftheresearchprogramofthecentreforSociety&Genomics,fundedbytheNetherlandsGenomicsInitiative.http://www.genome.gov/10001356.
- 2.
Sulston, 2002/2003, p. 24.
- 3.
The human genome was officially declared complete (at least in draft form) in February 2001 with the publication of two special issues of Nature and Science, in which the two rival armies of scientists deigned to summarize the breathtaking landscape of the human genome (Davies, 2001/2002, p. xv); Cf. the comparison of seeing the ‘genome landscape’ of human chromosome 22 to ‘seeing the surface or the landscape of a new planet for the first time’ (p. 194).
- 4.
Robert Cook-Deegan (1994/1995) also compares the HGP to officially ordained and coordinated efforts to survey land and coastal regions, thereby opening up the West. Yet, his favourite comparison is John Wesley Powell’s survey of the American West (p. 176).
- 5.
See appendix to the Lewis and Clark map.
- 6.
The map-making metaphor also applies to the so-called ‘second’ Human Genome Project, namely the Human Diversity Project, led by Luigi Luca Cavalli Sforza and resulting in a ‘genetic’ geography of mankind. Cf. The history and geography of human genes (Cavalli-Sforza, 1994).
- 7.
Craig Venter for instance stated that: ‘I know from personal discussions with the President over the past several years, and his comments here this morning, that genetic discrimination has been one of his major concerns about the impact of the genomic revolution. While those who will base social decisions on genetic reductionism will be ultimately defeated by science, new laws to protect us from genetic discrimination are critical in order to maximize the medical benefits from genome discoveries’. (http://www.genome.gov/10001356)
- 8.
I am concerned, as many of you are, that there are some who will want to use this new knowledge as a basis of discrimination. A CNN-Time poll this morning reported that 46% of Americans polled believe that the impact of the Human Genome Project will be negative. We must work together toward higher science literacy and the wise use of our common heritage. I know from personal discussions with the President over the past several years, and his comments here this morning, that genetic discrimination has been one of his major concerns about the impact of the genomic revolution. While those who will base social decisions on genetic reductionism will be ultimately defeated by science, new laws to protect us from genetic discrimination are critical in order to maximize the medical benefits from genome discoveries.
- 9.
This difference is also indicated by the icons Collins and Venter preferably used in self-presentations: Collins seated on his motorbike or playing country music on his acoustic guitar, and Venter on his sailing yacht – icons that symbolise terrestrial and aquatic forms of mobility.
- 10.
- 11.
In the context of literary writing, the term ‘experimental novel’ may be confusing. Usually, it refers to texts that try to go beyond established or standardized patterns of literary discourse – something like ‘beyond method’ or anything goes. Zola, of course, had something completely different in mind. He was rather thinking of a very methodical type of novel.
- 12.
Although the bringing back to life of dinosaurs may seem rather improbable and farfetched, the improbability of such an endeavour decreases as the species is closer (geologically speaking) to the present. Mammoth DNA, excavated in Siberian permafrost, or the genome of the Siberian tiger may (from a purely technical point of view at least) prove less difficult to reproduce and clone. In other words, while Jurassic Park may seem somewhat too ambitious, Pleistocene Park may prove less futuristic. The idea that in the near future revivified mammoths once again will roam the sub-Arctic tundras and ice fields cannot be discarded as completely absurd.
- 13.
Cf. ‘Crichton tries to address every aspect of the biotechnology craze at once, giving the book too many simultaneous plotlines to follow’ (Goldman,2007, p. 819).
- 14.
‘I wanted [the book] to be in a way analogous to the genome. The genome accumulates bits and pieces of genetic material over time. It gets viruses. They get incorporated. So I started incorporating a fair number of things … true stories that I just stick in the book.’ [http://www.michaelcrichton.net/charlierose-021907.pdf]
- 15.
‘The courts are incompetent … because they are technically illiterate’ (p. 56).
- 16.
My impression is that Bellarmino represents a mixture of Craig Venter and Francis Collins.
- 17.
On the ‘sociability gene’ see for instance. Nature, 395 (24 September 1998), p. 327.
- 18.
Cf. for example Dupré (2004) for a philosophical version of this debate.
- 19.
The 2000 press conference, rather premature and hastily contrived (Davies, 2001/2002, p. xv) was, in fact, an example of this policy.
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Zwart, H. (2009). Genomics Metaphors and Genetic Determinism. In: Drenthen, M., Keulartz, F., Proctor, J. (eds) New Visions of Nature. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2611-8_12
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