Every day scientists unravel new genetic mysteries about who we are and why.
It's fascinating, and weird, because researchers are finding genes that appear to dictate our smallest quirks and characteristics.They've found genes that appear to control a person's penchant for taking risks, another that makes a person an optimist and one that seems to decide how well a person grasps grammar. And the work is only just beginning.
The federal government is spending $3 billion to decode the entire Human Genome. It was supposed to take 15 years, but scientists are ahead of schedule in their quest to know us in molecular detail.
The job should be done by 2003. An article in Scientific American states scientists will soon be sequencing genes at the rate of one every hour.
Whew.
I figure it won't be long before we hear reports of a gene that predisposes a person to becoming a researcher who discovers genes.
But there are many other gene discoveries I am more anxiously awaiting since they'll do so much to make the world more understandable. Discovery of the Dense Gene , for instance, will reveal why some people get a joke and other people don't, no matter how many times you explain it to them.
The Technology Trait is bound to turn up, too. The first human to pick up a stick and use it to scoop a feast of ants out of the ground had that gene. Eventually it got passed down to Bill Gates and Steve Jobs and all those other people you know who fiddle so effortlessly with computers, cellular telephones, faxes and copy machines.
The Rock Star Gene was probably recessive until sometime in the late 1940s, when it began to mutate into a controlling characteristic of the musically inclined. Its features are distinctive, particularly in men. You've seen the signs: long straggly hair, excessively thin body, inclination to dress in tight pants and shirts open to the waist. Think: Mick Jagger and Michael Jackson - and even Mozart.
Meat Loaf is the result of an aberration in the genetic sequence.
The way things are going in the research labs, I now believe there is little left to chance or even to environment.
Bits of genetic code probably explain why few of us can match socks once they go through the wash, why some people never remember to signal when making left turns and why some people can't follow directions, even if they are written down.
I'm sure there is a Find A Parking Space (FAPS) gene that imbues a person with a finely tuned instinct for seeing conveniently located open spots. I have it; my husband doesn't.
More pertinent to my own life are the genes that doom you to a life as a worrywart, to have freckle-splattered skin, hair that turns prematurely gray and a love for the sort of sounds made by groups like The October Project and The Cure.
I'd like gene therapy for two of those, please.