| Sumario: | A huge step toward understanding how humans works was made in February 2001, when two rival teams published their papers containing the first drafts of the human genome. The two groups are Celera, a commercial organization that intends to profit from its discoveries, and the Human Genome Project, a joint venture between four taxpayer-funded U.S. laboratories, a charitably-funded British one, and a number of other minor contributors from around the globe. The two groups utilized very different methods in their investigations: the Human Genome Project used a step-by-step method that began with relatively large segments of DNA and broke them gradually into smaller pieces; Celera broke entire genomes into small pieces and relied on sophisticated computer programs to piece them back together. One interesting finding is that approximately half of the human genome leads a life of its own, totally unrelated to the needs of human existence. Another intriguing finding is that genetic differences between human beings and other species are smaller than had once been thought.
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