We consulted the following two books extensively for background on the early history of molecular biology and the Human Genome Project respectively:

Horace Freeland Judson, The Eighth Day of Creation (Jonathan Cape, 1979; paperback edition Penguin, 1995).

Robert Cook-Deegan, The Gene Wars (Norton, 1994).

These are referred to in the notes below as Judson and Cook-Deegan. For a lucid account of what the influence of our genes means for our understanding of ourselves, see:

Matt Ridley, Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters (Fourth Estate, 1999).

p. 3 Francis Crick famously shouted: James Watson, The Double Helix (Atheneum, 1968).

p. 3 So when the contemporary artist Marc Quinn: I met Marc when the National Portrait Gallery commissioned him to make a portrait of me for an exhibition in 2001–2. The portrait featured my own DNA growing in bacterial clones.

p. 4 You can do a similar experiment: for example, Susan Aldridge gives instructions in the opening chapter of her book The Thread of Life (Cambridge University Press, 1996).

p. 5 Sydney had come to Oxford: Judson, p. 231.

p. 6 ‘We propose to identify every cell in the worm’: letter from Sydney Brenner to Max Perutz, cited in Sydney Brenner’s foreword to The Nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, edited by W.Wood and the community of C. elegans researchers (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 1988).

p. 6 ‘Jim Watson said at the time that he wouldn’t give me a penny…’: Roger Lewin, ‘A worm at the heart of the genome project’, New Scientist, 25 August 1990, pp. 38–42.

p. 6 one of the main objects of his program: Sydney Brenner, ‘The genetics of Caenorhabditis elegans’, Genetics, vol. 77, 1974, pp. 71–94.

p. 7 In the wild, C. elegans lives…: Donald Riddle et al., ‘Introduction to C. elegans’, in C. Elegans II, edited by Donald Riddle et al. (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 1997).

p. 8 …skeptics who had said that the worm was so boring: ibid.

p. 9 ‘desks encouraged time-wasting activities’: John White, ‘Worm tales’, International Journal of Developmental Biology, vol. 44, 2000, pp. 39–42.

p. 9 another new arrival: Mike Wilcox, one of my closest friends in the early days; our families spent a lot of time together. Sadly, he died of cancer in 1992.

p. 10 In May 1947 he wrote…: Max Perutz, ‘How it all began’, MRC News, Winter 1997, p. 1.

p. 10 ‘Watson’s arrival had an electrifying effect…’: Max Perutz, ‘How the secret of life was discovered’, in I Wish I’d Made You Angry Earlier (Oxford University Press, 1998).

p. 11 with the crucial help of an X-ray photograph of DNA taken by Rosalind Franklin: see Anne Sayre, Rosalind Franklin and DNA (Norton, 1975).

p. 11 …published it in Nature…: James Watson and Francis Crick, ‘A

structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid’, Nature, vol. 171, 1953, pp. 737–8.

p. 11 Watson and Crick followed up with another: James Watson and Francis Crick, ‘Genetical implications of the structure of deoxyribonucleic acid’, Nature, vol. 171, 1953, pp. 964–7.

p. 13 Fred Sanger was the first to work out the complete sequence of amino acids : F.Sanger and E.O.P.Thompson, ‘The amino-acid sequence in the glycyl chain of insulin’, Biochemical Journal, vol. 53, 1953, pp. 353–74.

p. 13 Perutz and Kendrew had done the seemingly impossible: Max Perutz et al., ‘Structure of haemoglobin’, Nature, vol. 185, 1960, pp. 416–22; John Kendrew et al. ‘Structure of myoglobin’, Nature, vol. 185, 1960, pp. 422–7.

p. 13 Fred Sanger’s 1975 invention of a method for reading the sequence of DNA: Fred Sanger et al., ‘Nucleotide sequence of bacteriophage phiX174’, Nature, vol. 265, 1977, pp. 687–95.

pp. 13–14 Altogether nine Nobel prizewinners: James Watson, Francis Crick, Max Perutz, John Kendrew, Fred Sanger, Cesar Milstein, George Köhler, Aaron Klug, John Walker.

p. 14 [Max Perutz] was first interned as an alien: Max Perutz, ‘Enemy alien’, in I Wish I’d Made You Angry Earlier (Oxford University Press, 1998).

p. 14 Francis himself put it best in a letter: letter from Crick to Watson, 13 April 1967, cited by Judson, p. 182.

p. 23 I learned to do a reaction: the tutors on this course were Ed Furshpan and David Potter, neurophysiologists from Harvard Medical School.

p. 24 Sydney put me on to determining the quantity of DNA: John Sulston and Sydney Brenner, ‘The DNA of Caenorhabditis elegans’, Genetics, vol. 77, 1974, pp. 95–104.

p. 25 the first [paper] to come out with my name on it: Gerry Rubin and John Sulston, ‘Physical linkage of the 5S cistrons to the 18S and 28S ribosomal RNA cistrons in Saccharomyces cerevisiae’, Journal of

Molecular Biology, vol. 79, 1973, pp 521–30.

p. 26 previous researchers: Simon Pickvance and Roger Freedman had worked on the worm embryo in Sydney’s lab before me.

p. 28 ‘She would go through the successive sections…’: interview with John White, 5 June 2001. See also John White, ‘Worm tales’, International Journal of Developmental Biology, vol. 44, 2000, pp. 39–42.

p. 28 Eventually published in 1986…: John White, Eileen Southgate, Nichol Thomson and Sydney Brenner, ‘The structure of the nervous system of Caenorhabditis elegans’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B (Biological Sciences), vol. 314, 1986, pp. 1–340.

p. 29 At one point Sydney bet John…: this and other anecdotes of the time are related in Robert Horvitz and John Sulston, ‘Joy of the worm’, Genetics, vol. 126, 1990, pp. 287–92.

p. 31 We published the post-embryonic lineage…: John Sulston and Robert Horvitz, ‘Post-embryonic cell lineages of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans’, Developmental Biology, vol. 56, 1977, pp 110–56.

p. 31 ‘I knew that if I went to work with John…’: interview with Judith Kimble, 13 December 2000.

p. 32 The results of the various attempts: Gunther von Ehrenstein and Einhard Schierenberg in Germany and Teddy Kaminuma in Japan were recording embryos on movie film and trying to reconstruct the cell divisions.

p. 34 After a year and a half it was done: John Sulston et al., ‘The embryonic cell lineage of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans’, Developmental Biology, vol. 100, 1983, pp. 64–119.

p. 34 The lineage…‘has given single-cell resolution to worm biology’: interview with Bob Horvitz, 11 December 2000.

p. 38 Matt’s group had been working for some time…: Matt Scott and Amy Weiner, ‘Structural relationships among genes that control development: sequence homology between the Antennapedia, Ultrabithorax, and fushi tarazu loci of Drosophila’, Proceedings of the

National Academy of Sciences USA, vol. 81, 1984, pp. 4115–19.

p. 44 ‘Baconian science’: see e.g. John Pickstone, ‘Natural history’, in Ways of Knowing (Manchester University Press, 2000).

p. 46 Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard: she shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1995 for her work,

p. 46 ‘Lab meetings became nothing but progress in mapping’: interview with John White, 5 June 2001.

p. 47 Fred’s method [of sequencing DNA]: Fred Sanger shared the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1980 with Walter Gilbert, who devised an alternative method,

p. 49 ‘I saw the crystallographic people…’: interview with Alan Coulson, 5 December 2000.

p. 51 The LMB workshop built one [a scanner]: Frank Mallett designed the instrument and its data collection software.

p. 52 ‘It was clear that the way we were going to learn about muscle…’: interview with Bob Waterston, 8 December 2000.

p. 55 Worm Breeders’ Gazette: begun by Bob Edgar who visited Sydney Brenner’s lab in the early days, this publication is still going strong and can be seen at <elegans.swmed.edu/wli/>.

p. 56 1986, the year we published our first paper on the worm map: Alan Coulson, John Sulston, Sydney Brenner and Jon Karn, ‘Towards a physical map of the genome of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, vol. 83, 1986, pp. 7821–5.

p. 56 ‘There were four of us…’: interview with Bob Horvitz, 11 December 2000.

p. 57 ‘We talked about genomes…’: interview with Maynard Olson, 15 June 2001.

p. 58 One of the first to dare to think on this scale: see Cook-Deegan, ch. 5.

p. 59 ‘as we analyzed the problems to be solved…’: Robert Sinsheimer, ‘The Santa Cruz Workshop—May 1985’, Genomics, vol. 5, 1989, pp. 954–6.

p. 60 ‘the grail of human genetics…’: reported by Roger Lewin, ‘Proposal to sequence the human genome stirs debate’, Science, vol. 232, 1986, pp. 1598–1600.

p. 61 ‘Doesn’t one person really have to finish up that last 10 percent…’: quoted in Cook-Deegan, ch. 12.

p. 62 ‘I would only once have the opportunity…’: James Watson, Annual Report 1988 of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 1989, quoted in Cook-Deegan, ch. 13.

p. 62 a Japanese program had been set up: the project was chaired by Akiyoshi Wada, a biophysicist who had received part of his training in the US, and involved partnership with seven Japanese high-technology companies.

p. 63 ‘I wrote a little note…’: interview with Sydney Brenner, 12 June 2001.

p. 63 In February 1989 the UK’s Department for Education and Science announced an £11 million grant: David Dickson, ‘Britain launches genome programme’, Science, vol. 245, 1989, p. 1657.

p. 66 ‘It was impressive…’: interview with Bob Waterston, 8 December 2000.

p. 67 ‘In my conversations with Jim…’: interview with Bob Horvitz, 11 December 2000.

p. 67 ‘My impression was that Jim believed…’: ibid.

p. 69 ‘John was the standard bearer…’: interview with Aaron Klug, 30 January 2001.

p. 72 I was working with the LMB workshop: once again, Frank Mallett was the engineer supervising the project.

p. 76 ‘Rick knew the machine’s limitations…’: interview with Bob Waterston, 8 December 2000.

p. 78 ‘You’d sit down at the computer…’: interview with Rick Wilson, 12 May 2001.

p. 79 ‘There were huge gaps…’: interview with Bob Waterston, 8 December 2000.

p. 84 ‘That was a very attractive part of it…’: ibid.

p. 85 ‘We were worried that Bourke would recruit John and Bob…’: interview with Jim Watson, 8 November 2000.

p. 85 ‘I thought the fact that you had two countries coming together was great…’: ibid.

p. 86–7 The main bone of contention between [Watson and Healy] was the patenting of gene sequences: this episode is documented in Cook-Deegan, chs 19 and 20.

p. 88 ‘virtually any monkey’: quoted in Leslie Roberts, ‘Genome patent fight erupts’, Science, vol. 254, 1991, pp. 184–6.

p. 88 Watson eventually agreed…: Cook-Deegan, p. 329.

p. 88 The scientific advisory committee…was ‘unanimous in deploring the decision to seek such patents’: statement quoted in full in Roberts, ‘Genome patent fight erupts’.

p. 88 Walter Bodmer confirmed…: ibid.

p. 88 ‘It makes a mockery of what most people feel is the right way to do the Genome Project’: Berg, quoted in Leslie Roberts, ‘NIH gene patents, round two’, Science, vol. 255, 1992, pp. 912–13.

p. 89 ‘I was not anti-American…’: interview with Jim Watson, 8 November 2000.

p. 89 ‘It turned out I always had an illegal job…’: ibid.

p. 91 ‘To spend money on that scale sensibly is not easy!’: interview with Bridget Ogilvie, 2 February 2001.

p. 92 ‘The first idea was that we would each put in £2 million…’: ibid.

p. 92 a burst of comment about the episode: for example, Robin McKie, ‘Scandal of US bid to buy vital UK research’, Observer, 26 January 1992; Roger Lewin and Gail Vines, ‘US company plans to hijack DNA project’, New Scientist, 1 February 1992.

p. 93 the gene for Huntington’s disease, which had been linked to a chromosome almost a decade before: James Gusella et al., ‘A polymorphic DNA marker genetically linked to Huntington’s disease’, Nature, vol. 306, 1983, pp. 234–8.

p. 93 ‘That was the argument—that you would be able to get results…’: interview with Aaron Klug, 30 January 2001.

p. 96 ‘two or three million’: interview with Bridget Ogilvie, 2 February 2001.

p. 97 ‘It seemed very clear to me that although [John] eschewed responsibility he was actually taking it on willy nilly’: interview with Aaron Klug, 30 January 2001.

p. 98 ‘They plied me with sherry…’ interview with Jane Rogers, 9 January 2001.

p. 98 ‘I knew how to write down what was needed…’: ibid.

p. 99 ‘It was the obvious thing to do…’: interview with Bart Barrell, 14 February 2001.

p. 100 ‘We tried to jump from the Factor IX gene…’: interview with David Bentley, 11 May 2001.

p. 101 ‘I was deeply integrated into the Guy’s unit…’: ibid.

p. 104 ‘When it was clear that the Wellcome Trust and the MRC were going to create this larger venue…’: interview with Bob Waterston, 8 December 2000.

p. 105 he left in July 1992 to set up…TIGR: this development is documented in Cook-Deegan, chs 19 and 20.

p. 105 This technique had been developed by Paul Schimmel and his colleagues: S.D.Putney, W.C.Herlihy and P.Schimmel, ‘A new troponin T and cDNA clones for 13 different muscle proteins, found by shotgun sequencing’, Nature, vol. 302, 1983, p. 718.

p. 105 Craig…wrote to Jim Watson: Cook-Deegan, p. 315.

p. 105 He published his first paper on his EST work: Mark Adams et al., ‘Complementary DNA sequencing: expressed sequence tags and the Human Genome Project’, Science, vol. 252, 1991, pp. 1651–6.

p. 105 In an accompanying news article…: Leslie Roberts, ‘Gambling on a shortcut to genome sequencing’, Science, vol. 252, 1991, pp. 1618–19.

p. 107 Our paper came out in early 1992: Bob Waterston et al., ‘A survey of expressed genes in Caenorhabditis elegans’, Nature Genetics, vol. 1, 1992, pp. 114–23. The worm EST work in Craig Venter’s lab was led by

Dick McCombie and published in the same issue of the journal. Dick moved to Cold Spring Harbor soon afterwards.

p. 107 I was quoted as saying ‘Eight or nine per cent is more like it’: Roberts, ‘Gambling on a shortcut to genome sequencing’.

p. 107 ‘The extramural genome community…’: Statement of Craig Venter before the Subcommittee on Energy and Environment, U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science 17 June 1998, available at <www.house.gov/science/>.

p. 108 Craig…became a multi-millionaire almost overnight: Frederick Golden and Michael Lemonick, ‘The race is over’, Time, 3 July 2000.

p. 108 Despite his frequent claims to have ‘developed’ the use of ESTs…: Statement of Craig Venter before the Subcommittee on Energy and Environment, 17 June 1998.

p. 108 Sydney Brenner…had argued in favor of cDNA sequencing: Sydney Brenner, ‘The human genome: the nature of the enterprise’, Ciba Foundation Symposia, vol. 149, 1990, p. 6.

p. 109 ‘we should leave something for our successors to do’: interview with Sydney Brenner, 12 June 2001.

p. 109 TIGR did score a first in sequencing…Haemophilus influenzae: R.D.Fleishmann et al., ‘Whole-genome random sequencing and assembly of Haemophilus influenzae Rd’, Science, vol. 269, 1995, pp. 496–512.

p. 109 After…Randy Scott read about Craig’s EST work…: Gary Zweiger, Transducing the Genome (McGraw Hill, 2001), p. 71.

p. 110 Five years before, genomic entrepreneurs had found it almost impossible…: see Christopher Anderson, ‘Genome project goes commercial’, Science, vol. 259, 1993, pp. 300–2.

p. 116 ‘I sat down and started playing with the numbers…’: interview with Bob Waterston, 8 December 2000.

p. 118 Merck funded a massive drive…: David Dickson, ‘“Gene map” plan highlights dispute over public vs. private interests’, Nature, vol. 371, 1994, pp. 365–6.

p. 121 The first whole-genome physical map…: Daniel Cohen, Ilya Chumakov and Jean Weissenbach, ‘A first-generation physical map of the human genome’, Nature, vol. 366, 1993, pp. 698–701.

p. 121 At the same time his colleague Jean Weissenbach: G.Gyapay et al., ‘The 1993–1994 Généthon human genetic linkage map’, Nature Genetics, vol. 7, June 1994, pp. 246–339.

p. 122 New bacterial cloning methods: P1 artificial chromosomes (PACs) were developed by Pieter de Jong at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, New York; bacterial artificial chromosomes (BACs) by Mel Simon at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California.

p. 122 ‘In the end they more or less threw up their hands’: interview with Bob Waterston, 8 December 2000.

p. 125 Bridget Ogilvie and her colleagues at the Wellcome Trust were horrified: interview with Bridget Ogilvie, 2 February 2001.

p. 126 ‘I didn’t quite say so, but I thought that was their responsibility!’: interview with Bob Waterston, 8 December 2000. Clone supply was manageable for the Sanger Centre, because we already had sufficient inhouse resources and expertise.

p. 127 In an interview about our plan: Eliot Marshall, ‘A strategy for sequencing the genome 5 years early’, Science, vol. 267, 1995, pp. 783–4.

p. 127 The debate continued at the May 1995 Cold Spring Harbor genome meeting: Eliot Marshall, ‘Emphasis turns from mapping to large-scale sequencing’, Science, vol. 268, 1995, pp. 1270–1.

p. 128 Maynard backed us: see also Maynard Olson, ‘A time to sequence’, Science, vol. 270, 1995, pp. 394–6.

p. 128 the first attempt at a genetic map of the human genome: Helen Donis Keller et al., ‘A genetic linkage map of the human genome’, Cell, vol. 51, 1987, pp. 319–37.

p. 129 ‘We came at it from the point of view…’: interview with Eric Lander, 19 May 2001.

p. 129 ‘They were out of their minds…’: ibid.

p. 130 ‘Back in 1995 I got myself in a lot of trouble…’: ibid.

p. 130 ‘Our thesis is…’: John Sulston and the Sanger Centre Board of

Management, ‘The Sanger Centre 1995–2002’, proposal to MRC and Wellcome Trust, 1995.

p. 131 ‘In such a climate…’: Letter from John Sulston to Diana Dunstan, MRC, 5 June 1995.

p. 133 ‘It was a question of finance…’: email from Diana Dunstan to John Sulston, 7 August 2001.

p. 134 ‘The ideas of Wellcome…’: email from Dai Rees to John Sulston, 13 August 2001.

p. 135 ‘In the mid-1990s…’: interview with Mike Dexter, 20 April 2001.

p. 135 ‘We [the Wellcome Trust] wanted to take a risk’: interview with Michael Morgan, 25 April 2001.

p. 137 ‘They don’t want to see their opportunities cut off…’: email from Bob Waterston to John Sulston, 16 December 1995.

p. 137 When Francis Collins announced funding: National Center for Human Genome Research, press release, ‘Pilot study explores feasibility of sequencing human DNA’, April 1996.

p. 138 ‘Some people looking back in history…’: interview with Francis Collins, 11 December 2000.

p. 138 As Science reported: Eliot Marshall and Elizabeth Pennisi, ‘NIH launches the final push to sequence the genome’, Science, vol. 272, 1996, pp. 188–9.

p. 139 ‘It would have been much better to have accepted John and Bob’s idea at the time’: interview with Jim Watson, 8 November 2000.

p. 140 One gene, BRCA1, had been located by Mary-Claire King…: J.M.Hall et al., ‘Linkage of early-onset familial breast cancer to chromosome 17q21’ , Science, vol. 250, 1990, pp. 1684–9.

p. 140 In the summer of 1994 they located the gene…: R.Wooster et al., ‘Localisation of a breast cancer susceptibility gene (BRC A2) to chromosome 13q12–13 by genetic linkage analysis’, Science, vol. 265, 1994, pp. 2088–90.

p. 140 ‘I was concerned about what would happen…’: interview with Mike Stratton, 23 February 2001.

p. 141 ‘We discussed it…’: ibid.

p. 141 the ICR paper came out in Nature: R.Wooster et al., ‘Identification of the breast cancer susceptibility gene BRCA2’, Nature, vol. 378, 1995, pp. 789–92.

p. 142 ‘The Ashkenazi BRCA2 mutation was in our original paper…’: interview with Mike Stratton, 23 February 2001.

p. 142 in its 1996 paper: Tavtigian et al., ‘The complete BRCA2 gene and mutations in chromosome 13q-linked kindreds’, Nature Genetics, vol. 12, 1996, pp. 333–7.

p. 145 data release…is the issue with which the Bermuda meeting is most associated: for example, see David Bentley, ‘Genomic sequence information should be released immediately and freely in the public domain’, Science, vol. 274, 1996, pp. 533–4; Mark Guyer, ‘Statement on the rapid release of genomic DNA sequence’, Genome Research, vol. 8, 1998, p. 413.

p. 146 ‘It was crucial that people from the funding agencies…’: interview with Michael Morgan, 25 April 2001.

p. 146 ‘A lot of the smaller countries did not trust the US’: ibid.

p. 146 we won the acceptance of most (though not all) of the genome sequencing community: see e.g. Mark Adams and Craig Venter, ‘Should non-peer-reviewed raw DNA sequence data release be forced on the scientific community?’, Science, vol. 274, 1996, pp. 534–6.

p. 148 an article in Science: André Goffeau et al., ‘Life with 6000 genes’, Science, vol. 274, 1996, pp. 546–67.

p. 149 ‘the definitive source of genomic and associated medical information’: press release issued by the Perkin-Elmer corporation and TIGR, 9 May 1998.

p. 150 ‘I wondered why Craig didn’t call me himself’: interview with Jim Watson, 15 December 2000.

p. 150 ‘He told me that Craig was going to make a major announcement’: interview with Michael Morgan, 25 April 2001.

p. 150 ‘I thought the governors would say…’: ibid.

p. 151 It had been Hunkapiller’s idea: Nicholas Wade, ‘Beyond sequencing of human DNA’, New York Times, 12 May 1998.

p. 152 ‘This is a very exciting development…’: email from Mark Guyer to John Sulston and others, 10 May 1998.

p. 153 Anyone reading that article…: Nicholas Wade, ‘Scientist’s plan: map all DNA within 3 years’, New York Times, 10 May 1998.

p. 153 ‘It was like asking them to walk into the sea and drown’: interview with Jim Watson, 15 December 2000.

p. 154 ‘As I saw it, Craig wanted to own the human genome…’: ibid.

p. 155 he followed up the presentation with an article: James Weber and Eugene Myers, ‘Human whole-genome shotgun sequencing’, Genome Research, vol. 7, 1997, pp. 401–9.

p. 155 In a closely argued response: Philip Green, ‘Against a whole-genome shotgun’, Genome Research, vol. 7, 1997, pp. 410–17.

p. 157 Officially they were to be released…: press release issued by the Perkin-Elmer corporation and TIGR, 9 May 1998.

p. 157 ‘It was a testy meeting’: interview with Bob Waterston, 8 December 2000.

p. 158 ‘He didn’t know whether I was going to belt him…’: interview with Gerry Rubin, 11 May 2001.

p. 159 Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann’s ‘discovery’ of cold fusion: see e.g. Robert Pool, ‘Cold fusion: only the grin remains’, Science, vol. 250, 1990, pp. 754–5.

p. 160 The initial press reports on Craig’s company: see e.g. Meredith Wadman, ‘Company aims to beat NIH human genome efforts’, Nature, vol. 393, 1998, p. 101.

p. 160 The initial Perkin-Elmer press release…: Perkin-Elmer/TIGR, ‘Perkin-Elmer, Dr J.Craig Venter, and TIGR announce formation of new genomics company’, 9 May 1998.

p. 160 Although Craig later insisted…: Statement of Craig Venter before the Subcommittee on Energy and Environment, U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, 17 June 1998, available at <www.house.gov/science/>.

p. 161 ‘The public project was portrayed…’: interview with Francis Collins, 11 December 2000.

p. 163 ‘By the time we got to that Wednesday meeting…’: interview with Michael Morgan, 25 April 2001.

p. 167 ‘The atmosphere was electric’: ibid.

p. 167 it was now more rather than less likely that the sequence would be completed: I said this on the basis that there would be some sort of co-operation between Celera and the HGP. This didn’t happen, and so the timetable for finished sequence was scarcely altered.

p. 167 ‘It was absolutely critical, psychologically’: interview with Jim Watson, 15 December 2000.

p. 167 ‘The talk was of healthy competition…’: editorial, ‘A challenge to genetic transparency’, Nature, vol. 393, 1998, p. 195.

p. 169 ‘The excitement generated by the well-orchestrated public relations campaign…’: Statement of Maynard Olson before the Subcommittee on Energy and Environment, U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science 17 June 1998, available at <www.house.gov/science/>.

p. 170 ‘Any delay can result in wasted effort in research’: Statement of Francis Collins, ibid.

p. 170 he and his colleagues…had ‘developed a new strategy for identifying genes’: Statement of Craig Venter, ibid.

p. 170 Maynard Olson’s criticisms…were interpreted by many as sour grapes: see e.g. Kevin Davies, The Sequence (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2001), p. 153.

p. 171 It was time for Francis Collins…to make a statement: Eliot Marshall, ‘NIH to produce a “working draft” of the genome by 2001’, Science, vol. 281, 1998, pp. 1774–5.

p. 171 ‘No-one else is doing this’: Francis Collins, quoted in NIH news release, ‘Genome project leaders announce intent to finish sequencing the human genome two years early’, 14 September 1998.

p. 176 Genome Research Ltd: after various changes the board of directors had consolidated under the chairmanship of Derek Burke (previously vice-chancellor of the University of East Anglia). When Mike Dexter became

director of the Wellcome Trust he took over the chairmanship himself.

p. 177 Under the heading ‘Friendly fire’: email from John Sulston to Francis Collins, 28 October 1998.

p. 183 It came out in Science: C. elegans sequencing consortium, ‘Genome sequence of the nematode C. elegans: a platform for investigating biology’, Science, vol. 282, 1998, pp. 2012–18.

p. 183 ‘On stage we had Francis Collins…’: interview with Bob Horvitz, 11 December 2000.

p. 185 ‘In the changing environment of biology today…’: letter from John Sulston to board of management of the Sanger Centre and Genome Research Ltd, 28 August 1998.

p. 187 It was the day on which joint press announcements were made: see e.g. Colin McIlwain, ‘World leaders heap praise on genome landmark’, Nature, vol. 405, 2000, pp. 983–4; Andy Coghlan and Nell Boyce, ‘The end of the beginning’, New Scientist, 1 July 2000.

p. 189 ‘That was a turning point meeting…’: interview with Francis Collins, 11 December 2000.

p. 189 ‘It was pretty clear that John’s opinion…’: ibid.

p. 190 ‘Bob came around, and by the end of the day John was up at the blackboard…’ : ibid.

p. 190 The accelerated timetable was announced in mid-March: Elizabeth Pennisi, ‘Academic sequencers challenge Celera in a sprint to the finish’, Science, vol. 283, 1999, pp 1822–3.

p. 190 ‘If met, the new date set by the consortium could allow the public venture to claim some measure of victory…’: Nicholas Wade, New York Times, 16 March 1999.

p. 190 Craig…said that the new timetable was ‘nothing to do with reality’: ibid.

p. 191 ‘It’s kind of upsetting for all of us’: Glen Evans, quoted in Pennisi, ‘Academic sequencers challenge Celera in a sprint to the finish’,

p. 192 ‘I got all that I had requested…’: email from Bob Waterston to

John Sulston, 28 June 2001

p. 193 ‘This announcement gives the impression that [we’re] not needed’: André Rosenthal, quoted in Pennisi, ‘Academic sequencers challenge Celera in a sprint to the finish’.

p. 194 They all finally got together: Eliot Marshall, ‘Sequencers endorse plan for a draft in 1 year’, Science, vol. 284, 1999, pp 1439–40.

p. 197 ‘The day after we announced Celera, we set off an arms race…’: quoted in Philip Ross, ‘Gene machine’, Forbes, 21 February 2000.

p. 198 a consortium consisting of the Wellcome Trust and ten of the big pharmaceutical companies…: see <http://snp.cshl.org>; also Eliot Marshall, ‘Drug firms to create public database of genetic mutations’, Science, vol. 284, 1999, p. 406; Eugene Russo and Paul Smaglik, ‘Single nucleotide polymorphisms: big pharma hedges its bets’, The Scientist, vol. 13, 19 July 1999, p. 1.

p. 200 Ian Dunham and his colleagues had also begun to look…: E.Dawson et al., ‘A SNP map of human chromosome 22: extracting dense clusters of SNPs from the genomic sequence’, Genome Research, vol. 11, 2001, pp. 170–8.

p. 201 The chromosome 22 sequence was published in Nature: Ian Dunham et al., ‘The DNA sequence of human chromosome 22’, Nature, vol. 402, 1999, pp. 489–95.

p. 202 We’ve since been mocked…: Davies, The Sequence, p. 194.

p. 202 ‘it shows that you can get very good finishing’: quoted in Declan Butler, ‘“Finishing” success marks major genome sequencing milestone…’, Nature, vol. 402, 1999, pp. 447–8.

p. 202 ‘We could not have done this work…’: ibid., box headed ‘…as researchers pounce on glut of data’.

p. 203 Craig Venter’s agreement with Gerry Rubin to sequence the fly genome: Elizabeth Pennisi, ‘Fruit fly researchers sign pact with Celera’, Science, vol. 283, 1999, p. 767.

p. 205 The ‘public release’ that Craig had promised when Celera was launched: Statement of Craig Venter before the Subcommittee on Energy and Environment, U.S. House of Representatives Committee

on Science 17 June 1998, available at <www.house.gov/science/>.

p. 205 They…announced that the sequencing [of the fly] was ‘completed’: Declan Butler, ‘Venter’s Drosophila “success” set to boost human genome efforts’, Nature, vol. 401, 1999, p. 729.

p. 205 ‘other early genomes’: Celera Genomics, ‘Celera Genomics completes sequencing phase of Drosophila genome project’, press release, 9 September 1999.

p. 205 ‘It has been a win-win affair’: editorial, ‘Human chromosome 22 and the virtues of collaboration’, Nature, vol. 402, 1999, p. 445.

p. 205 Six weeks later Celera announced that it had sequenced 1 billion base pairs: Celera Genomics, ‘Celera Genomics delivers over 1 billion base pairs of human DNA’, press release, 20 October 1999.

p. 206 In November Celera invited forty fly biologists to an ‘annotation jamboree’: Elizabeth Pennisi, ‘Ideas fly at gene-finding jamboree’, Science, vol. 287, 2000, pp. 2182–4.

p. 206 A software tool called Ensembl: <www.ensembl.org>.

p. 207 ‘I did think it would be a useful thing to try to defuse this…’: interview with Eric Lander, 10 May 2001.

p. 208 No wonder Celera targeted the Sanger Centre: see e.g. Kevin Toolis, ‘DNA: it’s war’, Guardian, 6 May 2000, Weekend section, pp. 9–20.

p. 209 ‘the Wellcome Trust is now trying to justify…’: quoted in Richard Preston, ‘The genome warrior’, New Yorker, 7 June 2000.

p. 209 ‘statement of principles’: reproduced in Davies, The Sequence, p. 199.

p. 210 ‘We had been led to believe that they were seriously seeking some co-operation’: interview with Bob Waterston, 8 December 2000.

p. 210 ‘It was so different from what we had been led to believe’: ibid.

p. 210 Craig was already quite open about the fact that Celera was going to combine the publicly available data…: Paul Smaglik and Declan Butler, ‘Celera turns to public genome data to speed up endgame’, Nature, vol. 403, 2000, pp. 119–20.

p. 213 In January 2000 the company announced that it had sequenced 81 per cent of the genome: Smaglik and Butler, ‘Celera turns to public

genome data’; Celera, ‘Celera compiles DNA sequence covering 90% of the human genome’, press release, 10 January 2000.

p. 216 ‘Celera will need to hang its sequence data on the framework produced by the public project’: Smaglik and Butler, ‘Celera turns to public genome data’.

p. 216 Celera described its use of our data as a ‘de facto collaboration’: Nicholas Wade, ‘Company nears last leg of genome project’, New York Times, 11 January 2000.

p. 217 It had a huge impact: see e.g. Eliot Marshall, ‘Talks of public-private deal end in acrimony’, Science, vol. 287, 2000, pp. 1723–4.

p. 217 Craig Venter and Tony White [called] the Trust’s action ‘slimy’ and ‘a low-life thing to do’: Justin Gillis, ‘Gene map alliance hopes fade’, Washington Post, 6 March 2000, p. A04, 7 March 2000, p. E01.

p. 217 Craig even taunted us: Toolis, ‘DNA: it’s war’.

p. 218 The idea that it had been done for underhand motives was ‘fanciful’: Gillis, Washington Post, 7 March 2000, p. E01.

p. 218 the Washington Post described the genome project as ‘a mud-wrestling match’: ibid.

p. 218 From its place deep inside the interview…: see e.g. Natasha Loder, ‘Rival demands sink genome alliance plans’, Nature, vol. 404, 2000, p. 117.

p. 219 A week later Bill Clinton and Tony Blair made a joint statement: Declan Butler, ‘US/UK statement on genome data prompts debate on “free access”’, Nature, vol. 404, 2000, pp. 324–5; Bruce Alberts and Aaron Klug, ‘The human genome itself must be freely available to all mankind’, Nature, vol. 404, 2000, p. 325.

p. 219 But on the day of the statement CBS Radio News reported: Robert Langreth and Bob Davis, ‘Plunge in biotech stocks linked to press briefing’, Wall Street Journal, 16 March 2000.

p. 221 Celera announced that it had completed the sequencing of the first human genome: Nicholas Wade, ‘Analysis of human genome is said to be completed’, New York Times, 7 April 2000.

p. 221 Once again there was a most ingenious press release: Celera

Genomics, ‘Celera Genomics completes sequencing of the genome from one human’, press release, 6 April 2000.

p. 221 ‘You should not take at face value any claim…’: quoted in Allen Dowd, ‘Expert urges caution on genome discovery claims’, Reuters, 10 April 2000, reported e.g. in Wired News.

p. 222 his department issued a partial retraction: Christopher Elser, ‘Celera rival denies questioning claim Celera mapped 99% of DNA’, Bloomberg, 11 April 2000.

p. 222 ‘The Sanger Centre has the support of the Wellcome Trust’: interview with Francis Collins, 11 December 2000.

p. 222 Columbia University…had been due to hear from him at a seminar: Paul Pavlidis, personal communication.

p. 223 It was a party political issue: Nicholas Wade, ‘Analysis of human genome is said to be completed’, New York Times, 7 April 2000.

p. 223 Clinton sent a note to Neal Lane: Frederick Golden and Michael Lemonick, ‘The race is over’, Time, 3 July 2000.

p. 223 ‘I felt pretty uneasy about doing that…’: interview with Francis Collins, 11 December 2000.

p. 225 Of course, the 26 June announcement was a political gesture: see e.g. editorial, ‘Human genome projects: work in progress’, Nature, vol. 405, 2000, p. 981.

p. 226 in an article to appear in the journal Science: Craig Venter et al., ‘The sequence of the human genome’, Science, vol. 291, 2001, pp. 1304–51.

p. 227 Celera had been launched with the promise…: Statement of Craig Venter before the Subcommittee on Energy and Environment, US House of Representatives Committee on Science 17 June 1998, available at <www.house.gov/science/>.

p. 229 It seemed unlikely that Nature would bend its rules: editorial, ‘Rules of genome access’, Nature, vol. 404, 2000, p. 317.

p. 229 leading figures…wrote to voice their concern: Eliot Marshall,

‘Storm erupts over terms for publishing Celera’s sequence’, Science, vol. 290, 2000, pp. 2042–3; Eliot Marshall, ‘Sharing the glory, not the credit’, Science, vol. 291, 2001, p. 1189.

p. 229 Kennedy responded: Marshall, ‘Sharing the glory’.

p. 230 We began to think about our paper: International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium, ‘Initial sequencing and analysis of the human genome’, Nature, vol. 409, 2001, pp. 860–921.

p. 234 Michael Ashburner…wrote an outraged letter: Marshall, ‘Storm erupts over terms for publishing Celera’s sequence’.

p. 241 Despite disparaging remarks from Craig Venter: e.g. Tim Radford, ‘Articles of faith lie at heart of bitter feud’, Guardian, 12 February 2001.

p. 243 Robin’s interview with Craig was to be the front-page story: Robin McKie, ‘Men and women behaving badly? Don’t blame DNA’, Observer, 11 February 2001, p. 1; Laurie Cohen and Antonio Regalado, ‘How the media scrambled to tell news about the human genome’, Wall Street Journal, 13 February 2001.

p. 243 Ian Dunham’s [paper] on chromosome 22: Dunham et al., ‘The DNA sequence of human chromosome 22’.

p. 244 ‘I am sure I speak for all of us…’: quoted in Sherri Chasin Calvo, ‘At genome publication press conference spirit of unity masks tension’, GenomeWeb, 12 February 2001.

p. 244 ‘Most importantly we have made this available to the world…’: ibid.

p. 245 Aaron Zitner of the Los Angeles Times: ‘“Whole-genome shotgun” missed its mark’, Los Angeles Times, 11 February 2001.

p. 245 A consortium consisting of three private companies, six institutes of the National Institutes of Health and the Wellcome Trust: Eliot Marshall, “Public-private project to deliver mouse genome in 6 months,” Science, vol. 290, 2000, pp. 242–3.

p. 245 Craig Venter called (unsuccessfully) for public funding for mouse sequencing to be terminated: Nicholas Wade, ‘National Cancer Institute to buy access to rival’s genome data,’ New York Times, 10 July 2001.

p. 246 Meanwhile, Bob Waterston, Eric Lander, and I wrote a brief

analysis: Robert Waterston, Eric Lander and John Sulston, ‘On the sequencing of the human genome,’ Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 99, 2002, pp. 3712–3716.

p. 246 The following issue carried a vigorous rebuttal: Eugene Myers, Granger Sutton, Hamilton Smith, Mark Adams, and Craig Venter, ‘On the sequencing and assembly of the human genome,’ Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 99, 2002, pp. 4145–4146.

p. 246 …a second commentary on our paper from Phil Green: Phil Green, ‘Whole genome disassembly,’ Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 99, 2002, pp. 4143–4144.

p. 248 ‘Each new round of press conferences…’: Maynard Olson, ‘Clone by clone by clone’, Nature, vol. 409, 2001, pp. 816–18.

p. 255 French doctors for the first time successfully treated two babies…: M.Cavazzana-Calvo et al., ‘Gene therapy of human severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID)-X1 disease’, Science, vol. 288, 2000, pp. 669–72.

p. 255 So far such treatments have not led to long-term improvements: see David Weatherall, Science and the Quiet Art (Norton, 1996) for a discussion of the realities of transforming research into new treatments.

p. 256 the latter is currently banned: see the website of the Human Genetics Commission, which advises the U.K. government, at <www.hgc.gov.uk>.

p. 257 cases of children bringing lawsuits…for ‘wrongful life’: see John Harris, Clones, Genes and Immortality (Oxford University Press, 1998).

p. 258 Richard Dawkins’s lovely phrase: Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker (Penguin, 1980).

p. 259 ‘It has not escaped our notice…’: International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium, ‘Initial sequencing and analysis of the human genome’, Nature, vol. 409, 2001, pp. 860–921.

p. 264 a widespread feeling that science has already gone too far: see e.g. Jeremy Rifkin, The Biotech Century (Phoenix, 1999).

p. 268 a survey of researchers in US university labs…: Anna Schissel, Jon Merz and Mildred Cho, ‘Survey confirms fears about licensing of genetic tests’, Nature, vol. 402, 1999, p. 118; see also Jon Merz, Statement to the Subcommittee on Courts and Intellectual Property of the Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. House of Representatives Oversight Hearing on Gene Patents and Other Genomic Inventions, 2000, available at <www.house.gov/judiciary/merz0713.htm>.

p. 268 The guidelines on patenting genes in the US: Paul Smaglik, ‘…as US tightens up on speculative claims’, Nature, vol. 403, 2000, p. 3; <www.uspto.gov>.

p. 270 a pragmatic step would be to make gene patents subject to compulsory licensing: Seth Shulman, ‘Toward sharing the genome’, Technology Review, September/October 2000.

p. 270 Anti-biopiracy campaigners won a significant victory…: David Dickson and K.S.Jayaraman, ‘Aid groups back challenge to neem patents’, Nature, vol. 377, 1996, p. 95; U.Hellerer and K.S.Jayaraman, ‘Greens persuade Europe to revoke patent on neem tree’, Nature, vol. 405, 2000, pp. 266–7.

p. 271 surely we should not be patenting whole life forms?: Quirin Schiermeier and David Dickson, ‘Europe lifts patent embargo on transgenic plants and animals’, Nature, vol. 403, 2000, p. 3.

p. 273 The editor of the BMJ…: Anonymous, ‘Editor resigns from post after tobacco gift’, British Medical Journal, 19 May 2001.

p. 273 The pressure to be accommodating is then huge: Peter Gwynn, ‘Corporate collaborations: scientists can face publishing constraint’, The Scientist, vol. 13, 24 May 1999, p. 1.

p. 274 ‘wealth creation and the quality of life’: UK government White Paper, Realising our Potential (Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1993).

p. 275 Oxfam’s recent report to the government on globalization: The White Paper on Globalisation, Oxfam Policy Papers no. 12, December 2000.

p. 276 they were about to embark on a new campaign: ‘Cut the cost’, see <www.oxfam.org.uk/cutthecost/index.htm>.