They are poised to report to the world that their teams have completed a preliminary sequence of the human genome. In other words, they have managed to decipher most of the contents of the spiral-shaped DNA molecule that determines who we are. In spite of their highly publicized rivalry about reaching the finish line first, Collins and Venter may go down as a kind of scientific Lewis and Clark, whose explorations started a biological land rush. When the Genome Project was announced back in 1990, it was anticipated that the task would take up to 15 years. But rapidly improving technology, plus a challenge from high-tech entrepreneur Venter, has accelerated the timetable.
Competition focuses the mind wonderfully.
I think the main positive effect of Venter's effort was that it got everybody to buckle down to getting the job done. Botstein helped design the genome project in its early phase and thinks there is still more work to be done. It's not finished yet. It doesn't have continuity. On a more practical level, the 3.5 billion parts of the genome twisted into 23 pairs of chromosomes hold invaluable clues to thousands of genetic diseases.