Mapping the Code: The Human Genome Project and the Choices of Modern Science

A giant step for medicine or the most serious threat to personal freedom yet? A cure for cancer or an invitation to genetic discrimination and the search for a master race? Here, not a minute too soon, is a behind-the-scenes account of the Human Genome Project, the most ethically and politically complex scientific undertaking of this generation. Dubbed the ``Holy Grail of Biology,'' the Genome Project will occupy over the next five to 15 years a majority of the best public and private labs and cost more than the GNP of many nations. This book separates fact from fiction, identifies the real moral issues in the debate, and captures the drama--as well as the intrigue and infighting--that has riveted the scientific establishment throughout.

In contrast to Lois Wingerson's Mapping Our Genes ( LJ 6/1/90) and Jerry Bishop and Michael Waldholz's Genome ( LJ 7/90), both largely journalistic accounts that dwell on the medical implications of the Human Genome Project, Davis's book focuses more on the project's scientific, technical, and political aspects. This project is actually numerous projects--some of which are competing, and others of which are purely commercial enterprises--all operating under the umbrella of the biggest "Big Science" undertaking ever conceived in the biological sciences. This is the strongest of the three books at depicting the scientific processes and, because of this emphasis, there is relatively little substantive overlap with the other two. This text can be somewhat technical, but readers who want a complete and detailed account of the project will find it only here. Bishop and Waldholz's book will serve as the preferred popular account.
- Gregg Sapp, Montana State Univ. Lib., Bozeman
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.