Wednesday 7 May 2008

Human Genome - Annunciation (1)

‘The Human Genome is the ‘Holy Grail’ of biology.’ Washington Post

‘I would say the Human Genome Project is probably more significant than splitting the atom or going to the moon. That sounds really audacious, doesn't it? But I think history, when we look back in a hundred years, will agree with that conclusion. This is an adventure into ourselves, to read our own blueprint, the consequences of that, for our ability to understand health and disease, and a whole variety of other issues that relate to humanity are profound, so I don't think it's grandiose or overstated to claim this is the most significant organized scientific effort that humankind has ever mounted, bar none.’ Francis Collins, Head of US Human Genome Project, CNN, US


Human Genome – Annunciation (1)

There are trumpets in today’s loud sunshine,
daffodils prooting annunciation of spring -

bright yellow voices chattering, giggling
in fingery wind, squeakily stiff on parade,

herald duties; funsters attempting seriousness.
Big news to Earth’s creatures is coming – but

this time beyond seasonal warming of soil
molecules, limbering roots, imploded seed

DNA. They are more than first sparks, bright-
minted yellow rusting, rustling into summer –

listen - whispering, nervous joy - like excited children
in the wings before a play, exuberance only just bound

by green wires tying yellow floral ribbons to the earth,
because knowledge has returned - so ancient, language

is being dragged semi-comatose from poetry, religion,
history; everywhere half-buried that has skills enough,

resonance for appropriate capture, means of expression.
They are aghast, open-mouthed at blue opening above -

that great sky maw voicing one articulate blue thought,
mightily simple, yet magnificent - written among stars;

self-dazzling, grinning, just rubbing cheek to cheek -
dainty air-kissing like posh Englishwomen at parties

you want to grab, plant a smacker, proper kiss
on pursed lips, grasping limpfish fingers firmly,

smudging lipstick for a shower of honest pollen -
like gold DNA daffodil-dust from sweet tongues.

It’s a rollicking song - the song of daffodils bursting
jauntily from flagpole green; a tuned choir of season,

temperature, youthful light, warm rainwater opening
soprano mouths - always a dramatic announcement -

they understand symbolism’s urgency, evolved message,
ruthless beauty - each frill is an elaboration of centuries.

How many millennia practising, beginning as gold
embers cooling from the first high fires of creation;

this knowledge was written also in the hearts of daffodils -
flowers wrapped deep and careful in tissued brown globes,

in darkness between original stars; light smelted into earth,
charged in dark, bulb hearts, switches tripped every spring –

organic bottled light that would one day illuminate blue;
yellow herald mouths today gossiping and proclaiming.


‘But it was Dr Mike Stratton, Head of the Cancer Genome Project at the Sanger Centre, the UK's main sequencing centre, who said the big prize, the human genetic blueprint, was being given to the public. "Today is the day that we hand over the gift of the human genome to the public. It is very fragile and beautiful and a powerful force for great good or evil," he said. The responsibility for its use was also being handed over to society, said Dr Stratton. Dr John Sulston, leader of the UK's contribution to the Human Genome Project, agreed, adding: "I'm confident that if we can explain this well, so that it becomes part of the democratic process, we will have no problems”.’ Dr Damian Carrington, BBC News Online

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