An extract from "Genes, Cells and Brains" by Hilary & Steven Rose
THE HUMAN GENOME DIVERSITY PROJECT
“The revelation of the complexity of the human genome came as a surprise, at least in part due to the sequencers’ failure to recognise the significance of the fact that the genome is the product of 3.5 billion years of evolutionary history. Within a decade of the Clinton-Blair press conference, several other mammalian genomes had been sequenced. The almost embarrassing closeness of the human sequence to that of our near evolutionary neighbours, the chimpanzees, as against the obvious differences between any human and any chimpanzee, only highlighted the fact that, despite Gilbert’s claim, whatever was meant by being human, it was not simply embedded in a DNA code that could be burned onto a CD.”
“Much, much more was required.”