New technology and science are really acting like magic. It's a dream come true. I believe having information about one's geneome could help a lot to forsee and prevent later health problems like strokes, high blood pressure and others.Many Many thanks to researchers, scientists and inventors!

Fadhila , Sfax, Tunisia

Could this guy please make up his mind? Evolution is survival of the fittest, nature red in tooth and claw. We are computers made of meat, slime on the edge of a planet, and devices to pass on genes - and he thinks we should be nice??!!?

Nick, Cape Town, ORSA

Let there be the essence of 'enigma in our lives , of that 'unknown something" which binds us all into human race yet is not visible to any naked eye...let there be . No matter how smart we grow and how prudent and empirical our minds be, to do DNA and Genome mapping , to understand our genetic history.....there shall always be a fabulous curiosity and awe , when a mother gives birth to a child and holds her close to her bossom. She wouldn't or rather shall n't ask the Doc...... the silliest and awkward question, whether the child truly belongs to her, and is genetically same with DNA configurations as hers'. Motherly love defies all such permutations and combinations, be it double helix , strands and genes???? For her, pure and pristine love is far and beyond the boundries of humand mind.....yet we are grateful and indebted to Prof. James Watson and his discovery of DNA and Genome mapping. It has helped the human race to understand the cause of diseases like Alzheimer's and treat it

Sandy, New Delhi, India

For a reasonably balanced view on Rosalind Franklin, see "Maurice Wilkins - The Third Man of the Double Helix: An Autobiography" ISBN-10: 019280667X

The book is not sensation-mongering, but really good science, and captures the atmosphere perfectly.

Robert H. Olley, Reading, UK

Way back in the late 1930s a young company which would be called IBM helped the German government improve the tracking of their citizens. The technology--which would become computers--was ammoral, the purpose--seeing who was desireable and which were to be erradicated--was not. It was dictated by an agenda which had nothing to do with computers.

Our DNA code is very much the same. Do we pretend that knowledge itself is evil, or the purposes to which it is used? Do we ban umbrellas--as was once done in the US because God created the rain--because thieves use them to burgle houses in the rain? I think not.

We must always take the optimistic road and realize that if our specie was so terribly evil, its doubtful that we would have gotten this far. And that technology must go hand in hand with ethics and morality. DNA offers great hope and is essental to improving out lot. Let us embrace it as such--with caveats.

James Sibal, NYC, NY, USA

Ignorance is not bliss, it's denial.

J. Rhinehart, Spartanburg, usa

We do not have the imagination to predict what amazingly benign and unspeakably evil actions will flow from humankind's possession of the genetic code.

"Gataca" is coming true.

John Tindall, Birmingham, UK

I'm not sure Insurance Companies are so daft as to move completely towards genetic testing. After all, they require many people to insure themselves against something that never hapens to cover the 1 loss. If they insist on tests, those that show a very small or no risk at all are less likely to insure themselves.

Fraser Mackie, Bromley,

Sort of like knowing the date of the day you will die. There are just some things I would rather not know about myself. Anyway, I think Professor Watsin is speaking in hopeful terms, and not necessarily with reality. In the US, there is a fear that either the government or insurance companies want the genetic information; but to what end? Are people with severe genetic diseases going to be allowed to have children? And what about diabetics, heart disease, etc? It is a human rights issue, and one that is far from being settled.

Tony Francis, Wichita, KS/USA