What’s a piece of media (book, movie, song) that changed how you see the world?

There are many books, movies, songs and music genres that inform our world view. They influence the way we see ourselves, and our connections to humanity and nature. Rather than list all the books and media content that impacted our lives, I thought it best to select a major scientific project.

When we think about science, we usually think about technology. The inventions that remade, and are still remaking our lives, are there for all of us to witness. Mobile devices, personal computers, functional magnetic resonance imaging, vaccines, wireless communication, the transistor – all of these have changed our lives and the ways we interact.

It is the Human Genome Project (HGP) that has most profoundly changed us, and our vision of humanity, at least since 1990.

But wait a minute, the HGP is not a book, or a video, or a piece of music, or a CD, is it? Yes, that is true. However, journalists working in science communication, and the geneticists themselves, have routinely likened the human genome to a piece of technology. A blueprint of life is a favoured metaphor; DNA is the book of life, an instruction manual for making a human being. DNA is information, similar to the software coding of a computer programme – another analogy.

It is not my intention to respond to each and every metaphor, no matter how well-intentioned and misplaced. It is relevant for us here to note one egregious example; in 1992, (I think his name was Dr Gilbert, but I would have to check my notes) a geneticist at a press conference held up a CD-ROM and said ‘this is you.’ He was explaining, in his own way, the significance of mapping the human genome to the assembled journalists.

He was both right and wrong; no, DNA is not reducible to a CD, but he was correct in pointing out the enormous repercussions of the HGP on our way we view humanity. In the Stanford University’s monumental encyclopaedia of philosophy, there is an extensive section examining the human genome project.

Wait a minute, surely the HGP is a scientific endeavour? What is an online philosophy encyclopaedia doing discussing that topic? Actually, the philosophy area is precisely the place to discuss the human genome, because it directly relates to what makes us human, and how we see ourselves in the natural world.

I studied biology and geology at school some 40 years ago. It was fascinating, and I have many fond memories of those times. Genetics was obviously a branch of biology, but I had no idea about genomes, gene sequencing, genetic determinism, DNA databases, genomics and the commercialisation of genetic testing – all that lay in the future.

Earlier this year, (April I think), pioneering geneticist and researcher J. Craig Venter (1946 – 2026) passed away. He was one of the first scientists to not only realise the importance of the human genome, but dedicate his scientific career to mapping it. He was driven by a strong motivation to achieve in science. I wish more people would take science as seriously as he did.

His death marks a kind of bookend for a scientific project. While I am quite certain that genomics, a field he helped to develop, will continue to grow, his passing reminds us that scientific goals are equally important with political and environmental issues.

His work, along with the scientists working at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) helped to finally achieve a full sequencing of the human genome. Where I disagreed with Venter, much as I admired his scientific work, was in the privatisation of genomic material. Private genetic companies collect our DNA, and unlock the information about our lives contained within, as private property.

Genomics has become big business. Multinational genomic corporations have spread across the globe, collecting and analysing our genetic data. Does this mean we have come closer to understanding ourselves as humans?

Of course genes play a role in our development as human beings. There have been numerous heavyweight boxing champions, but only one Muhammad Ali. He was born with faster than normal reflexes, and his leg speed was lightning fast. Most heavyweights, while powerful punchers, move like refrigerators.

Ali could throw seven, eight punches while his opponent only threw two. His reflexive dodging of punches was extraordinary. If you can hit, and avoid getting hit, you have made it in the sweet science of boxing.

Yes of course he trained, building up his strength. His environment certainly helped him become a great champion. Malcolm X, in his autobiography, relates how when he was young, he wanted to be a boxer. He trained, exercised and ate nutritionally appropriate foods. In his very first amateur fight, he got knocked out in five minutes. Getting up from the canvas, he realised he was never going to be a boxer.

While our genes are important, it is vital that we do not fall into the trap of genetic determinism. The catch-all phrase ‘it’s in the DNA’ has been deployed to explain away social inequality, warfare and racism. If our DNA is rotten, what is the point of change?

The rottenness is not in our genes, but in our unjust socioeconomic relations and exploitive ecological practices. If anything, the HGP has revealed just how similar we all are under the skin, rather than highlighting any differences.

Hey, I have some news for white nationalists; genomic studies of Viking DNA, you know, those tall, fair-skinned, blond haired warriors you are so fond of? Even they, yes the Vikings, were not the pure white master race you would like everyone to believe. If you want to read further (presuming you can actually read), have a look at the admixture the Vikings were back in the day. Viking did not necessarily equate with Scandinavian ancestry.

Such findings as the one I summarised above are only possible because of the remarkable work of thousands of scientists on the HGP.