On June 26, 2000, researchers announced that they had completed the rough draft of the mapping of the  human genome after 10 years of work, unraveling its code in its entirety for the first time. No doubt, both the strain of repetitive, meticulous work and the utter wonder and excitement of their momentous achievement filled their hearts throughout the process, and converged intensely in that milestone moment.

Many humans made historical statements on this day of human achievement-- June 26, 2000, but none were wiser and more articulate than the words of the former Rhodes scholar and U.S. President Bill Clinton: "The most important fact of life on this Earth is our common humanity." DNA research has already started to tell us much about our common ancestors and our common humanity...

Mapping the details of the human DNA sequences-- the chemical "letters" that makeup the recipe of human life-- is a breakthrough that is expected to transform medicine with its new treatments for disease-- as as well will have a profound impact on the human condition through its authoritative view of our place in the biological scheme of things. For the first time, within the scope of the DNA model, for the first time, there will be authoritative evidence on just what we are and are not.

The Human Genome Project (HGP) is an international research program designed to construct genetic and physical maps of the human genome, to determine the complete nucleotide sequence of human DNA, to localize the some 80,000 genes within the human genome, and to understand the relationship of this genome to other species, as well as how this incredible knowledge should be managed among humans. In both cooperation and competition, the private American corporation Celera Genomics is undertaking the same challenge providing a much-needed second perspective.

Specific sequences of DNA letters make up the genes that makes us what we are, govern our biological function, and in great part determine our inclination to particular diseases. For instance, a disease discovered in association with this DNA research is hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC), believed to account for one in six of all colon cancer cases.. Though scientists had known for years that an altered gene was to blame for this hereditary colon cancer, only through tools emerging from the HGP were researchers able to localize the altered genes that bring a 75% chance of contracting colon cancer to two genes, one in chromosome 2 and one in chromosome 3.

The mapping of the human genome involves three separate steps: sequencing, assembling, and annotating the genes. Scientists announced on June 26, 2000 that they had completed the first two steps, albeit in a first cursory completion.

In the sequencing phase, the first step, researchers identified the  approximately 3.5 billion chemical letters that make up human DNA, the building blocks of the some 80,000 genes that make up the distinct content in the 23 pairs of chromosomes (one chromosome in each pair coming from each parent) in each of the more than 100 trillion cells in every human body, every cell in the human body except for blood cells and egg/sperm cells. each gene is a segment of double-stranded DNA that holds the recipe for making a specific molecule, usually a protein. These recipes are spelled out in varying sequences of the four chemical bases in DNA: adenine (A), thymine (T), guanine (G), and cytosine (C). The bases form interlocking pairs that can fit together in only one way: A pairs with T; G pairs with C. This "code" is remarkably similar to the binary code that computers use to process complex information.

In the second step, the assembling step, the researchers put those letters in the correct order, allowing them for the first time to "read" each gene. In effect, for the first time, researchers were able to read the "computer programs" within the human cells by which humans develop and replicate themselves as humans.

In the final step, to be completed in the next few years, scientists will identify each gene and its function. Moreover, they will seek to interpret the meaning in all this data and extrapolate the useful data into effective health care solutions. This interpretive process will reveal many opportunities to leverage this detailed insight into the mapping of the DNA coding.

At least 4,000 genetic diseases afflict human beings. Given enough time and effort, researchers can learn to prevent or treat many of them. The process to treat each of these genetic orders involves answering the same three questions. Researchers can start with either of the first two questions and use it to get clues to the other. After the first two questions are answered, researchers will move on to the third question, whose answer, if affirmative, will reveal a solution to the genetic disease under review. The three questions are the following: 

• Which altered (defective) gene causes the disease?
• What protein does this gene normally produce?
• Can the altered protein or gene be fixed or replaced?

Many years will be needed to fully mine the wonders that will expose themselves from these groundbreaking discoveries. Man will know himself better than before-- will for the fist time possess an operating manual for his own biological existence. As man to a greater degree masters his own physical existence, man's evolution as an intellectual and spiritual  creature will continue at its fast pace, leading man to new challenges and new issues, further removes from his origins millions of years in the past as a worm that could... and did... did reach for the stars and for the destiny that life's powerful and positive forces revealed moment by moment by moment.....