CHECK IT OUT

Humans may be masters of their fates, if you believe Shakespeare’s

Caesar, but can they master their genes?

The answer may lie with the U.S. Human Genome Project, a 13-year

effort begun in 1990 by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National

Institutes of Health. Among other goals, the project aims to identify

some 30,000 genes in human DNA and to deal with attendant ethical, legal

and social issues.

Transformational technology expert Gregory Stock will explore such

issues at a lecture titled “The Human Genome Project: Our New Frontier,”

at the Newport Beach Central Library on April 20 and 21. Whether or not

you attend, you can investigate implications of genetic engineering with

print and online resources.

For comprehensive information about the genome revolution, head for

o7 https://www.ornl.gov/TechResources/Human_Genomef7 , accessible at

library Internet terminals. Along with summaries of Human Genome Project

issues, this suite of Web sites includes news and resources that address

challenges of understanding the human biology instruction book.

Also accessible online, through the library’s Proquest database, is

the full text of “Implications of the Human Genome Project for Medical

Science” in the Feb. 7 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Assn.

Learn about the potential of genetic decoding to alleviate human

suffering in this issue devoted to 21st century medical research.

There’s a background about the Human Genome Project in the March/April

issue of Psychology Today. Find the magazine on library shelves, or

access it online through the library’s EBSCOHost database.

You can read about the often-tortured processes that contributed to

the sequencing of most of our genes in the past three years in “Cracking

the Genome.” While illuminating personalities and technologies involved

in cracking the code, author Kevin Davies assesses the state of public

and private genome knowledge in this analysis of the sequencing race.

There are essays by 17 authors representing a spectrum of opinion in

Engineering the Human Germline: An Exploration of the Science and Ethics

of Altering the “Genes We Pass to Our Children,” edited by Gregory Stock.

The volume is based on the 1998 symposium co-organized by Stock, and

provides an overview of issues involved in chromosome manipulation.

While altering genes may change modern medicine, it won’t help us

understand human behavior, asserts Paul Ehrlich in “Human Natures.”

Explore cultural forces that influence how we conduct ourselves in this

thoughtful work about human evolution.

How mankind will evolve will be fundamentally altered by breakthroughs

in genetics, maintains Freeman Dyson in “The Sun, the Genome and the

Internet.” In addition to enabling us to give our children healthier

lives, gene engineering will contribute to a more equal distribution of

the world’s wealth, he asserts.

Call Ticketmaster at (714) 740-2000 for ticket availability to Stock’s

presentations, or visit the customer service desk at the Newport Beach

Central Library on Saturday, Sunday or April 14 to purchase tickets.

* CHECK IT OUT is written by the staff of the Newport Beach Public

Library. This week’s column is by Melissa Adams, in collaboration with

Tamara Henn. All titles may be reserved from home or office computers by

accessing the catalog at o7 https://www.newportbeachlibrary.org.f7