11 - Research Tactics and Economic Strategies: The Case of the Human Genome Project

Summary

In the Museum of Science and Technology in San Jose, California, there is a double helix of telephone books stacked in two staggered spirals from the floor to the ceiling twenty five feet above. The books are said to represent the current state of our knowledge of the eukaryotic genome: the primary sequences of DNA polynucleotides for the gene products which have been discovered so far in the twenty years since cloning and sequencing the genome became possible.

THE ALLEGORY OF THE PHONE BOOKS

In order to grasp what is problematical about the human genome project (HGP), I want you to hold on to this image of a stack of phone books, or rather two stacks, helical in shape. Imagine each of the phone books to be about the size of the Manhattan white pages, and that the two stacks of phone books reach up a mile or so into the sky. Assume that the books are well glued together, and that there are no gusts of wind strong enough to blow the towers down. The next thing you are to imagine is that there are no names in these phone books, or on their covers. Only numbers. We do know that each phone number is seven digits long and we know the numbers have been assigned to names listed alphabetically, but without the names we can't tell to whom a number belongs. Moreover, the numbers are not printed in columns down the pages that will enable you to tell where one phone number ends and the next begins. Instead of being printed in columns down the page, the numbers begin at the top left and fill up the begin at the top left