Scientists have released results from their first full look inside the human genome—or human DNA—and some say that the data has the potential to change the way scientists view human life. The surprisingly low number of genes in the human genome, compared with other life forms, is one of the significant findings of this initial analysis, scientists say.  According to the results released February 12, humans possess approximately 30,000 to 40,000 genes, just twice the number of genes of a fruit fly, or 10,000 more than a roundworm. 

This is an important reminder that human life cannot be adequately described by reference only to genes, suggests Svante Paabo, an anthropologist in Germany who is associated with the study.

“It’s delusional to think that genomics in isolation will ever tell us what it means to be human,” writes Paabo, whose article about the Human Genome Study will be published in this month’s edition of Science magazine.

The mapping of the human genome is a “fantastic scientific achievement,” says Dr. Ronald Carter, chair of the Natural Sciences department at Loma Linda University, a Seventh-day Adventist institution located in Southern California. He says that in spite of the fact that “geneticists have ‘opened the genetic book of life,’ we are still far from understanding the multi-dimensional nature of life itself.”

According to Carter, it is not the number of genes that is the most significant difference between sophisticated and less-sophisticated life forms.  “What really counts is how genes interact with each other, their products, and their environment; and how genes are differentially regulated throughout an organism’s life.”

“Whenever I look at the results of the human genome,” adds Carter, “I’m impressed with what appears to be tremendous design and the vast amounts of information derivable from a simple linear biochemical sequence.”

As a scientist who is also a Christian, Carter says that his scientific appreciation for the complexity of the human genetic makeup encourages his faith in a creator God.

While the Human Genome Project has opened up new vistas in scientific understanding of human life, it also “brings a heavy weight to bear on the system of human morality,” says Dr. James Gibson, director of the Adventist-sponsored Geoscience Research Institute.

“The deeper we delve into human genetics and the greater the ability we have to alter genetic matter, the more pressing the need for a code of scientific ethics that can deal with these new scenarios,” says Gibson. “I see great potential for good, but also great potential for evil.”

The Human Genome Project combines the efforts of geneticists around the world with researchers at Celera Genomics, a private research company.  In late 2000, the team completed the mammoth task of producing a first complete “map” of human DNA.  Scientists hope this knowledge will one day be harnessed to cure diseases ranging from diabetes to cancer to Parkinson’s disease.