WITH a rough draft of the entire human DNA sequence in the bag, it might seem
time for biologists to take a well-deserved rest. In fact, the real work is only
just beginning. If the molecular drama that constitutes human biology were a
movie, the DNA sequence of the human genome would be no more than a cast
list—and one written in a foreign language, at that.
The challenge now is to find out how cells actually use the information in
our DNA. Biologists are already busy identifying which parts of that DNA
represent genes—those sections that can generate…
