The Human Genome Project is a phenomenal achievement and undertaking for all of humankind. What it is, its goals, history, what it can do to our culture, and even the controversy the project causes is extraordinary, because man has come so close to unlocking a small part of the mystery of life! The Human Genome Project is a project whos ultimate goal is to decode all human genes, and to identify specific traits that make up a person. Many human diseases can be identified by the DNA sequence, along with the physical characteristics of a person. With this information in the future, people will be able to choose their children’s features, they can grow a copy of a diseased organ, people will have a better understanding of all DNA, and there may be cures developed for hereditary diseases. This project began in October of 1990. It is an international effort, for 18 other countries are contributing to it in some way. The countries involved are Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Netherlands, Russia, Sweden, England, and the United States. In the United States, the director of the project is Ari Patrinos and Francis Collins. Ari Patrinos is also the head of the Office of Biological and Environmental Research, and Francis Collins is the leader of the Health National Human Genome Research Institute. Some pioneers in the Human Genome Project were an American biochemist, James Watson, and English biophysicists Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins. Altogether the cost of this project in the United States is an estimated three billion dollars.The genome is the collection of all genetic material in an organism. This material, DNA, is composed of 4 chemicals known as bases. The main bases are adenine, (A) guanine, (G) thymine, (T) and cytosine. (C) The bases join in pairs, (Adenine with thymine, and guanine with cytocine.) forming rungs of a ladder. This is the double helix of DNA! The ...
