The news that the genome had been decoded was old, having been announced last year at a White House press event. What was news was that both research teams found there to be about one-third as many genes in the human genome as previously thought. Instead of 100,000 to 120,000 genes being coded in human DNA, both teams‘ research indicates that there are about 30,000. Add to that conclusion that a preponderance of those genes is found in species such as the fruit fly, roundworm, and other lowly creatures, and we are left to ask ourselves what makes humanity human.

Dr. Francis Collins, project director of the public consortium gene decoding team, said that one thing to avoid in studying the genome is to ascribe all that defines us as humans to a genetic sequence. His view is that we are considerably more than the sum of our GCAT parts. Likewise, in a 1983 book, The Youngest Science: Notes of a Medicine Watcher, scientist and science philosopher Lewis Thomas wrote, “If I am, as I suppose is the case at bottom, an assemblage of electromagnetic particles, I now doubt that there is any center, any passenger compartment, any private greenroom where I am to be found in residence.” He clearly does not believe that his humanity derives from his biological or physical apparatus either. This is the dilemma and the dichotomy of what we are made of versus who we are.

Like Dr. Collins, I do not believe I can explain myself as a product of my DNA. It may be that there are no explanations of humanity that we can grasp, at least in the sense of quid pro quo Western science. The mathematician Kurt Gödel proved that in any given seemingly consistent mathematical system, there will always be unanswerable recursive questions. With respect to DNA, one interpretation of his theorem implies that there are limits to a DNA-based entity being able to fully interpret all the implications of its own DNA.

Then there is also the explanation that God created us. But any scientific proof of this explanation is unlikely as well. Science and religion are often viewed as immiscible disciplines, whose proponents frequently see those on the other side as either Frankensteins or snake handlers. However, lately there has been a movement to make them less so. Reverend Arthur Peacocke, a Church of England theologian who holds a doctorate in physical biochemistry and teaches at Oxford University, won this year‘s Templeton Prize, a million-dollar award given annually to honor someone who has shown extraordinary originality in advancing the world's understanding of spirituality. Last year, quantum theorist Freeman Dyson won it. Each in his own way is trying to help us all resolve this most fundamental question of what makes us who we are, and if ever there was a time when we needed help in deciphering the true meaning of life and DNA, it is now.

We simply don‘t know where self-knowledge comes from, and I doubt that it will come any time soon from any organization in Montgomery County. We also have to live with the possibility that we will never know. But as for myself, when I look at a fruit fly, a worm, or even a monkey, I hear an inner voice whisper, “There but for the grace of God go I.”