The Human Genome

Today's publication of the draft human genome sequence compiled by J. Craig Venter and colleagues represents just the beginning, not the end, of the effort to decipher the human genome. Both the sequence published in this issue and the one in this week's issue of Nature , compiled by lead author Eric Lander of the public genome consortium, have yet to be finished, with all the i's dotted and the t's crossed. But even in this unpolished state, these two books provide the most comprehensive look at the human genome ever possible; they offer a tantalizing glimpse at the wealth of information contained in the sequence.