If the DNA in any human cell were uncoiled and stretched out, it would be six feet long. The sheer volume of information stored in the human genome is enough to put the best computers to shame-about 3.5 billion "base points" of information, each formed by a chemical called a nucleotide and always found in pairs. The human genome is the group of billions of molecules and 23 paired chromosomes that wind around each other in the double helix of DNA at the core of every human cell. Our near descendants may be called something like Homo geneticus, because the genus Homo is about to acquire the power to control its own evolution. Sequencing the genome means the beginning of the end for Homo sapiens as our species is now understood. Possession of genome-sequence information will make possible a huge range of good or evil developments, from breakthroughs in medicine and longevity, to loss of medical privacy, and perhaps much worse. It might be, oh, just roughly the most important announcement in human history.įor thousands of years, men and women have wondered how they are made we are now poised to find out. Don't skip past this story as more techno-talk. This morning at the White House, President Clinton announced that a consortium of public and private researchers has completed the first human-genome sequence map-a description of where each chemical lies in our DNA.