HUBRIS WINDS through the history of genetics like a double helix. "We used to think our fate was in our stars," James Watson, one of the scientists behind the discovery of DNA, declared in 1989. "Now we know, in large measure, our fate is in our genes." The implications were clear. Unravelling the genetic code would bring an exquisite understanding of bodies and their afflictions but also of minds. After the completion of the human genome project, which Watson initially led, such hopes faded. Individuals' physical or mental characteristics, and their susceptibility to diseases, turned out to be extraordinarily complex. Some of the swagger went out of genetics. Now it is back.
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