Updates
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BIOTECH
Since our May/June cover story on genetic technology ("The New You"), another rapid advance has made the news: Dr. J. Craig Venter, president of the Institute for Genomic Sciences, and Michael W. Hunkapiller, president of Applied Biosystems, a division of the scientific instrument maker Perkin-Elmer, announced in May a joint plan to map the entire human genome by 2001. The project will cost up to $200 million and will be completed four years before the government's similar program, the $3 billion Human Genome Project. If successful, Venter and Hunkapiller's project (80 percent of which will be controlled by Perkin-Elmer) will decode the genetic causes for a variety of hereditary diseases, as well as yield the partners a lucrative database linking medical histories and hereditary traits to particular gene sequences. "This demonstrates that whoever controls the genome will control commerce," says Jeremy Rifkin, author of The Biotech Century and Mother Jones contributor. "And Venter is going for the whole ball game."
Lately, Rifkin has been making some biotech news of his own. In April, he and Stewart Newman, a professor at New York Medical College, announced their application for a patent on all technologies that could lead to the creation of "human/animal chimaeras," or animals that contain a mixture of human and nonhuman genetic material. Rifkin and Newman plan to hold onto the patent in order to prevent such research from ever being pursued for the 20-year life of the patent. "We're doing [it] to give the U.S. and other countries enough time to have a deep debate" over the pressure on life sciences firms to "humanize" animals, says Rifkin.
REEF PATROL
In our May/June issue, Bradford Matsen examined how human activity is killing the world's coral reefs ("Travel to Exotic Foreign Lands! See Beautiful Coral Reefs! And Kill Them!"). Since then, reefs have been the subject of good news: In June, President Clinton signed an executive order creating a U.S. reef patrol. The Coral Reef Task Force will map and monitor all U.S. coral reefs, research reef degradation, and recommend measures to prevent and mitigate further damage to the reefs.
HIGH-SPEED PROBLEMS
In "Planes, Supertrains, and Automobiles" (July/August), we hyped the success of superfast commuter trains in Europe and Japan and lamented how slow the trains have been to capture U.S. imaginations. Unfortunately, shortly after we went to press, supertrains' spotless safety record was marred by the June 3 crash of a German high-speed train, causing the death of 98 passengers. Subsequent investigations have suggested a faulty wheel was to blame. On the bright side: The U.S. recently allotted $900 million to develop a maglev.
