The human genome is a complete set of instructions we each carry around with us.  As opposed however to say, instructions on how to set up the new boob tube, these instructions contain a bonus, DNA, the molecule containing information an organism needs to develop, live and reproduce.  Although we need do nothing in order for it to work, its doings are not so simple as sitting on the sofa with the remote.

The first working draft of the human genome was published 20 years ago, on February 15, 2001.  What have we learned since then?  Well, aside from Dolly the Sheep and the Clone Commanders of Star Wars fame, there exists a number of benefits to human counterparts inhabiting the universe. But first we should consider, this particular wing of scientific knowledge which may be fraught with dangers in the wrong hands, and without the proper controls.  While “genomics” partnered with supercomputers can help to identify the origins of many diseases, and is presently searching deeply into all forms of cancer, and working to manipulate the Alzheimer’s gene  toward a cure, there are those modern day Dr. Frankensteins who would like nothing better than to create their own version of a new and improved human, which on the one hand may seem worthy of the time and expense, but on the other, trying to fool Mother Nature never seems to turn out all that well.

So called CRISPR gene editing, the power to alter DNA, has its benefits.  Aside from creating a flock of Clark Kents and his Supergirl cousin Karen Starr, it can create new, healthier foods, could eradicate genetic errors that cause disease and could possibly eliminate their causes alltogether.  Also, theoretically it could resurrect the wolly mamouth, or at least a hybrid of the hoary and hairy beast, for what reason no one has been able to explain, and also rid the world of mosquitos, an end seemingly worthy in itself.  But, it also has that goulish quality of know-how associated with the unnatural, the stuff of Netflix producers.

In the United States, the CDC, those lovable folks who flash us the latest in COVID news, operates an Office of Genomics and Disease Prevention.  The National Institutes of Health partner with them to monitor privacy matters in testing and research, while the FDA has issued regultory schemes concerning most genomic testing.  Overall however, Congress has yet to enact legislation regulating the boundaries of the science itself, most likely because Congress seems not to be able to get out of its own way.  In this instance however, perhaps that is a good thing, as before you know it we would be regarding the science and its applications through another meaty layer of bureaucracy, and not unlike like Monty Pyton’s Ministry of Silly Walks, the purposes would be lost in the procedures.  For the moment the scientists are self-regulating, with the general exceptions of privacy and non-discrimination strictures.
 

But what if CRISPER could shake out certain traits and prevent newborns from catching the annoyance gene?  Perhaps that could eliminate the Sunday driver in the fast lane, on Wednesday, the sports fan who spouts every statistic, whether right or wrong, during the game, the New Green Deal advocate who flies around in private jets, or the friend who criticizes another, only to fall victim to the same irresponsible behavior that was projected that another.  But, not all but most kidding aside, the science has the promise of a healthier race of humans, but also the possibility of great harm in the wrong hands.  Just as the dot.com explosion was an awakening to a new potential, good and bad, as we see every day, the science of the genome offers great hope for the future, and a not so distant future, providing of course that we do not muck up the highway in the meantime.