This is a classic article from New Scientist’s archive, republished as part of our 50th anniversary celebrations
IT TOOK more than a decade of effort, but Monday 26 June 2000 will be remembered as the day when humankind learned, in a sense, what it is to be human. Heads of government and Nobel laureates came together to hail the “working draft” of the human genome: the set of genetic instructions which governs the assembly and function of all human beings.
There may still be holes to fill in, and the raw genetic information presented this week may take decades to…
