Autobiographies

The article Understanding the Human Genome Project: a biographical approach by Hub Zwart (who has an awesome name)describes the recent autobiographies of three of the chief scientists involved in the human genome project.  It is because they were chief that they had the necessary visibility to be able to write autobiographies.  As Zwart puts it they represent, “the larger research communities they are involved in.”  In this sense, they are able to provide insights into how the whole process that was the Human Genome Project ran as a going concern.  They also represent an insider’s view of what is usually not seen by the public until it is presented as a finished project.  I thought this distinction between esoteric and exoteric communication presented in the article was an interesting one.  The process of actual scientific research is open to every qualified participant but the general public does not have the training or the interest to follow the complexities of that research and so there is exoteric communication—journalists writing, interviews and these autobiographies.  In analyzing the memoirs of John Sulston, Francis Collins and Craig Venter, Zwart is arguing that they provide some benefit in understanding the history of the events in which each author describes his part.  They provide a human element: “They reveal and bring into the open what tends to be forgotten or even consciously ‘repressed’ in more formal self-presentations of science and scientists.”  It is good to be reminded that this was a human effort and, as such, was full of all the drama that usually entails.  Zwart makes his argument well: there is much to be gained in looking at a more complete picture when trying to sum up the importance and the significance of the Human genome Project in particular and in all scientific endeavors in general.