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Genome tells us who we are
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Matthew Malowany
THIS week, scientists released what has been called the "Book of Life” - a listing of the three billion genetic letters which, taken together, spell out every human being. The project to decipher this book, the genome, took many years and millions of dollars. It is a great scientific accomplishment, and may someday allow scientists to gain a deep and profound understanding of just what makes a human being. But what will this mean for the rest of us?
The biggest practical result of this project may lie in the field of medicine. In recent years, it has been discovered that some of humanity's deadliest diseases, from cancer to diabetes to a mountain of less common but terribly deadly illnesses, may have a genetic source. If it turns out that cancer, for instance, may be triggered by defective or malfunctioning genes, it may someday be possible to prevent or even cure it.
Yet, as happens with every great scientific discovery, the deepest results may be found in the hearts and minds of human beings, for the information contained in the genome may drastically alter the way we look at the world, ourselves, and indeed life itself.
One of the project's important find is the number of genes we possess. For decades, it was assumed that primitive creatures, like worms and fruit flies, have far fewer genes than higher life forms like humans. But this turns out not to be so.
According to scientists, rather than having up to 150,000 genes as expected, we only have around 26,000 - about the same as, say, a corn plant. Or, as another example, we only have 300 genes that mice lack. In practical terms, researchers are excited about this find, because, they say, it will be much easier to track down the causes of genetic illnesses.
But this find will also require a drastic change in the way we view our place in the world. In effect, it eliminates the distinction between "higher” and "lower” life forms. We are no longer superior beings sitting atop the evolutionary ladder - we're just another blade of grass in a very big meadow.
Furthermore, the importance of environment in the development of human beings has suddenly taken on new meaning. Once it was thought that just about every aspect of humanity - hair colour, social attitudes, artistic talent, a propensity for crime and so on, were the result of genetics. But the realization that human book of life is very thin is proof that who we are comes from a mishmash of genes, genetic interactions, and environment. This suggests that we are far more equal than we were willing to believe.
And speaking of equality, an interesting find was made about the human race - or, rather, the human races.
The DNA samples studied for the genome project were taken from three women and two men. The donors were from different ethnic groups: African-American, Hispanic and Chinese. Craig Venter, head of one of the firms conducting the research, says the DNA of the donors was 99.99 per cent similar. Indeed, he said differences among members of the same "race” are far greater than those between the races themselves.
As Venter told reporters in Washington, the unraveling of the human genome would "not aid those who want to perpetuate racial prejudice”. Indeed, it will not aid those who want to perpetuate the very notion of race, for if race does not really exist in our DNA, where does it exist, apart from our own minds?
The human race has suffered terrible violence throughout history, especially in the last hundred years, as one "race” slaughtered another. The butchery in places like Rwanda and Nazi Germany, it turns out, were for nothing. These slaughters were not the result of different races struggling for survival, but members of one race, the human race, warring with itself.
The human book of life, then, does much more than offer us the possibility of new treatments for illnesses; it requires us to radically rethink the way we view ourselves, and, therefore, our behaviour. We must live in harmony with nature because plants, animals, fish and birds are all our equals. And we must live in harmony with one another because words like “race” and “foreigner” have suddenly lost all meaning.
Our genes demand we live in peace and stop despoiling the planet. Perhaps that is the real discovery.
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