Human Genome Project

This summer, MacArthur Award-winning choreographer Liz Lerman will leave the Takoma Park, Maryland troupe she founded in 1976 to pursue solo projects in dancing and writing. The company, now called the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, will revert to its original name — The Dance Exchange — on July 1. The new artistic director will be choreographer Cassie Meador, 31, who is in her 10 t h year with the troupe. "I have been so supported by the community in the Washington D.C. and Maryland area, and have been challenged to do my best work," Lerman said in a news release.

It could provide a road map to all of human genetics, cures for any number of diseases and fodder for generations of dissertation topic-seeking graduate students of biology. It could also provide a bonanza for Life Technologies Inc."It" is the Human Genome Project, a multiyear, multibillion-dollar federally backed research project to identify the location of every chromosome, gene and base pair of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) -- all three billion base pairs, in fact -- that make up the human cell.

In Washington Patients' rights to see Medicare information upheld When Medicare patients ask for an investigation into their care, the government must tell them the results, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday. The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld a 2001 District Court ruling, saying Medicare patients had to be kept up to speed on revelations about their complaints. The government policy had been to merely tell people who complained that it had investigated and, if any problems were found, the proper action would be taken.

WASHINGTON -- They all talked about it as a book, although e-book is a better analogy. If the human genome were actually printed out on paper it would rise as high as the Washington Monument. On Monday, to enormous fanfare, competing scientists from Celera Genomics Corp. and the federal Human Genome Project jointly announced the publication of the "Book of Life." For the first time, we have a working draft of the instruction manual for making and growing a human being. And though it isn't exactly a beach book, it is a blockbuster.

Recently, an organization called "The Human Genome Project" -- which, incredibly, turns out NOT to be rock band -- announced that it had deciphered the human genetic code. Scientists reacted by holding a joyous celebration. Clearly, then, cracking the genetic code is a big deal for the scientific community. But what does it mean to you, the nonscientist who still secretly believes that radio works by magic? To answer that question, we need to review basic biology. I studied biology under Mrs. Wright at Pleasantville (N.Y.

ROCKVILLE -- When J. Craig Venter said a few days ago that he would try to complete the first human genetic blueprint faster than the federal Human Genome Project, it was as if some aerospace executive had vowed in the mid-1960s to overtake NASA and be the first to put humans on the moon.Of course, the upstart entrepreneur who tried to launch a private Apollo mission would have been ridiculed, his sanity seriously questioned. But Venter, who pioneered a widely used method for rapidly identifying genes, has a history of silencing skeptics.

FOR SALE: Amid wishes for a merry Christmas, Bishop Emilio de Carvalho of Luanda, Angola, president of the United Methodist Council of Bishops, said such sentiments seem odd in the world's trouble spots."

In 1969, the year man first walked the moon, Dr. Victor A. McKusick proposed that scientists map the genes that help make people what they are: blond or brunette, giant or dwarf, daring or reluctant. The proposal must have seemed as realistic as a mission to the sun."It took a little nerve," says the Johns Hopkins physician, who admits that nobody had the tools to pull it off.Then again, nobody envisioned that science would move as fast as it has. Thanks to rapid advances in biology, scientists now regard the complete mapping of the human genome as an inevitability.

The cloning of humans is coming. The pressing need for advancements in medical technology and the drive of scientific curiosity cannot override the importance of examining the theological, moral and ethical ramifications of cloning. We must marshal our resources to initiate a debate.As the 20th century has come to be known for the Information Revolution, so will the 21st century be known for the Biological Revolution. Exactly where the breakthrough cloning of a sheep by researchers at the Roslin Institute in Scotland will lead is anyone's guess, but we can be certain of one thing: The ethical, moral and theological frameworks of our society will be drastically affected, challenged, and, at times, perhaps even devalued.

Just enough science to make it believable, that's producer Tim Kring's goal. But for some fans of the hit NBC show Heroes, which Kring created and launched last year, he has been missing his mark. It started in the first episode, when genetics professor Mohinder Suresh repeats an oft-debunked myth as fact - that humans only use 10 percent of their brains - sending sci-fi fan Michael L. Kramer into a fit of self righteousness. "I thought, `Do the writers know anything about science?' " said Kramer, who's working on a visual-perception doctorate at Ohio's Miami University.