Word: humanity
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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McKusick also directs the Human Genome Organization (known informally as "Victor's HuGO"), a group formed last September in Montreux, Switzerland, by 42 scientists representing 17 nations. "The U.N. of gene mapping," as McKusick describes it, plans to open three data-collection and -distribution sites, one each in Japan, North America and Europe...
Working with family pedigrees and DNA extracted from the cell bank, White and his group have identified more than 1,000 markers, each about 10 million base pairs apart, on all the chromosomes. They have also been major contributors to the Center for the Study of Human Polymorphisms, set up in Paris by French Nobel laureate Jean Dausset to coordinate an international effort to map the genes. Of the 40 families whose cell lines reside in CEPH's major data banks, 27 have been provided by White's group...
Undaunted, researchers are refining their techniques in experiments with mice, and Mulligan believes that the first human-gene-therapy experiments could occur in the next three years. Looking further ahead, other scientists are experimenting with a kind of genetic microsurgery that bypasses the retrovirus, mechanically inserting genes directly into the cell nucleus...
...heart of Moscow's newfound flexibility is Gorbachev's need to transfer scarce resources from the military to the civilian economy if he is to improve living conditions at home. By paring the military, Gorbachev aims to free not only investment resources but human resources as well. With public pressure building to reduce or even abandon the Soviet Union's unpopular conscription, Gorbachev said last October that the length of military service may be shortened. Presumably, for each good soldier lost, Moscow hopes to gain a good worker...
...miracles might someday be possible does not necessarily mean that they should all be performed. The tools of molecular biology have enormous potential for both good and evil. Lurking behind every genetic dream come true is a possible Brave New World nightmare. After all, it is the DNA of human beings that might be tampered with, not some string bean or laboratory mouse. To unlock the secrets hidden in the chromosomes of human cells is to open up a host of thorny legal, ethical, philosophical and religious issues, from invasion of privacy and discrimination to the question of who should...