The Human Blueprint: The Race to Unlock the Secrets of Our Genetic Script

In a dramatic, personal narrative, popular science writer Shapiro ( Life Beyond Earth ) presents the fullest, clearest account to date of the Human Genome Project, the ongoing research effort to decode the entire DNA text. Besides bringing anticipated relief from hereditary diseases, the Project, if successful, will make feasible new techniques, like mass genetic screening and embryo selection, that will raise novel ethical and legal issues, discussed here with calm detachment. Shapiro engagingly illuminates the Project's working methods, the key scientific personalities involved and the momentous implications for the future. Using a genetic profile of the British royal family as a case example and working backwards and forwards, he speculates on the degree of detailed knowledge each of us may one day possess about our own heredity. Photos. BOMC selection. (Sept.)