Genome Essay
Genome Essay
BIOL 230W
Joel Sharp
"In the beginning was the word." (Genome 11) This word was indefinitely important to the world, because knowing what this word meant and what was locked in it held the meaning of life. The word is "Genome" and it is also the name of the book authored by Matt Ridley, not as a scientific work but a work of art. Guiding the reader with the life of the genome through its chromosomes, a story told in each one relates each chromosome to their accomplishments. In the beginning the human genome was a vast array of disillusion, in the past technology was lagging, and the amount of manpower required to generate any sufficient data on the human genome was almost impossible. Until the world of scientists united and formed the Human Genome Project, thousands of scientists around the world would now share their data on the genome through a network that allowed the Human Genome to be mapped out in about a decade. Predicted foresights of this enormous accomplishment were in somewhere in lines of six hundred years to map the genome if it were not for the coalition of scientist working in harmony. If the genome was not unraveled could Matt Ridley still have written about it? This book is more non-scientific based work, but never the less it incorporates what is known from the genome into his book. Since this is not a pure science book we can assume that most of the views pointed out in it are individual thoughts about fate, environment, intelligence, disease, stress, personality, sex, death, cures, free will, and even politics; these all could be involved in the genome but the views of Matt Ridley this book are of his own with some but little scientific reference.
A misconception of the world is that genes cause diseases and disorders, but how can we point to a gene and say that is the sole cause of a disorder or flaw. Ridley thinks this to be absurd because some disorders are caused due to a lack of gene such as the Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome.
BIOL 230W
Joel Sharp
"In the beginning was the word." (Genome 11) This word was indefinitely important to the world, because knowing what this word meant and what was locked in it held the meaning of life. The word is "Genome" and it is also the name of the book authored by Matt Ridley, not as a scientific work but a work of art. Guiding the reader with the life of the genome through its chromosomes, a story told in each one relates each chromosome to their accomplishments. In the beginning the human genome was a vast array of disillusion, in the past technology was lagging, and the amount of manpower required to generate any sufficient data on the human genome was almost impossible. Until the world of scientists united and formed the Human Genome Project, thousands of scientists around the world would now share their data on the genome through a network that allowed the Human Genome to be mapped out in about a decade. Predicted foresights of this enormous accomplishment were in somewhere in lines of six hundred years to map the genome if it were not for the coalition of scientist working in harmony. If the genome was not unraveled could Matt Ridley still have written about it? This book is more non-scientific based work, but never the less it incorporates what is known from the genome into his book. Since this is not a pure science book we can assume that most of the views pointed out in it are individual thoughts about fate, environment, intelligence, disease, stress, personality, sex, death, cures, free will, and even politics; these all could be involved in the genome but the views of Matt Ridley this book are of his own with some but little scientific reference.
A misconception of the world is that genes cause diseases and disorders, but how can we point to a gene and say that is the sole cause of a disorder or flaw. Ridley thinks this to be absurd because some disorders are caused due to a lack of gene such as the Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome.
Cited: Ridley, Matt. Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters. New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc, 1999.