The Common Thread

by GEORGINA FERRY JOHN SULSTON, Georgina Ferry

The world was agog when scientists made the astounding announcement that they had successfully sequenced the human genome. Few contributed so directly to this feat as John Sulston. This is his personal account of one of the largest international scientific operations ever undertaken.

It was a momentous occasion when British scientist John Sulston embarked on the greatest scientific endeavor of our times: the sequencing of the Human Genome. In The Common Thread, Sulston takes us behind the scenes for an in-depth look at the controversial story behind the headlines. The accomplishments and the setbacks-along with the politics, personalities, and ethics-that shaped the research are frankly explored by a central figure key to the project.

From the beginning, Sulston fervently proclaimed his belief in the free and open exchange of the scientific information that would emerge from the project. Guided by these principles, The Human Genome Project was structured so that all the findings were public, encouraging an unparalleled international collaboration among scientists and researchers.

Then, in May 1998, Craig Venter announced that he was quitting the Human Genome Project-with plans to head up a commercial venture launched to bring out the complete sequence three years hence, but marketed in a proprietary database. Venter s intentions, clearly anathema to Sulston and the global network of scientists working on the Project, marked the beginning of a dramatic struggle to keep the human genome in the public domain...

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, History, Biology, Genetics, Politics, Popular Science

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Bryn Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is more accessible by scientists and researchers than the general, non-scientifically educated members of the public. The author is a highly-decorated scientist and the writing is quite technical and complex, though I imagine that is due to the author's desire for accuracy.

The opening chapters are tough for someone without a decent grasp of basic genetics, I do not have that and so struggled in the early stages and ended up skipping the opening chapters and I understood the rest of the book well enough without them. These chapters could've been simplified or omitted.

It was around the 1/4 point that things kicked off with the history of the project, establishing the Sanger Centre, international cooperation and PR competition with private labs attempting to kill the public project. This is the value of the book--correcting the record and providing the facts on the funding, goals and ethics of genomic research.

[Libby is now on Storygraph · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book started out slow for me, but when it got into the discussion of private vs. public and the ethics of scientific discovery, I was really intrigued. As someone who works in research, these issues were relevant and made me realize the delicate balances in many aspects of society.

[fliss heywood · Rating 2 out of 5]

‘i regret that nowadays we live in a world where we are materially richer but apparently nothing matters except next years bottom line’

[Benedict Reid · Rating 3 out of 5]

The inside story of the genome project, complete with the political interfering from both British and US governments, as well as big business attempting to take ownership of DNA itself.

[Jayesh Shah · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is interesting. It describes the sciencce and politics that led to the discovery of the human genome. It is written from the point of view of John Sulston, a Nobel Prize winner.