Science should learn from experience. That biology is treading in the footsteps of physics is not a new idea. Physics was in its golden era in the 1920s and 1930s. This period ended abruptly and unexpectedly in December 1938 with the discovery of atomic fission. This is not to imply that the heyday of molecular biology will lead to a parallel scenario, but that the sequencing of the human genome is as portentous an undertaking as the study of atomic structure, and is not merely a technological phenomenon. It will make it possible to insert new genes or change existing ones to "improve" the species, and to predict the likely future course of an individual's health. Given recombinant DNA technology, the knowledge it will provide is unparalleled. Indeed, Walter Gilbert and Walter Bodmer say so in so many words in The Scientist.
I believe that many scientists feel the awesome ...
