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COPYRIGHT 2001 Natural History Magazine, Inc.
A new exhibition unravels the wonder, the promise, and the potential dangers of human DNA research.
This past February 12, Charles Darwin's birthday, two versions of the human genome were announced--one produced by a public organization, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium, based in Cambridge, England, and the other by a private company, Celera Genomics in Rockville, Maryland. Now, on May 26, the Museum opens the exhibition "The Genomic Revolution." Dealing largely with invisible matter, the exhibition relies on models that gleam like jewels under spotlights and on glowing images projected across computer monitors and high-definition plasma screens, while LED displays spell out news of the genome direct from the laboratory in bright, ever-flowing letters.
Just past the entrance is a small installation devoted to James D. Watson and Francis H. C. Crick's revolutionary 1953 double-helix model of the structure of the DNA molecule. And straight ahead is a brand-new, floor-to-ceiling rendering of the double helix as an organic, undulating, slightly metallic serpent of the night. It's a long way from Watson and Crick's mechanical, tinker-toy affair.
Also near the entrance, in an encased glass vial, is a sample of the real thing: a single strand of DNA replicated thousands of times and forming a white mush. A parabolic mirror inside the case makes the DNA material appear to float overhead like a hologram. Three and a quarter billion nucleotides--the structural units of DNA--on twenty-three pairs of chromosomes...
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