348 RüdigerKunow
"cracking the genetic code" or "reading" the building blocks of life. All
of this came to be seen as not just a stopgap solution for a conceptual
quandary but was perceived as empowering, hailed as "the Holy Grail"
ofbiology.^37 FrancisS.Collins,directoroftheNationalHumanGenome
Research Institute, explained the implications of this conceptualization:
"If this is the Book of Life, we should not settle for a rough draft over
the long term but should remain committed to producing a final, highly
accurateversion"(qtd.inJ.Wilson23).^38
The double inscription of genes asbio-informationalunits—above
and beyond its utility for scientific research^39 —has been of great social
and cultural significance. Approximating genes to information helped
popularizegenomicsasavibrantnewbutatthesametimepracticalfield
of science, a popularity which was "crucial for the wide-spread support
to [sic] the HGP [Human Genome Project]" (García-Sancho 113).
Perhaps even more important from a culture-critical point of view was
the suggestiveness of the idea that bio-informational units were taking
textualformwhoseaggregatesumwouldthenbethe"BookofLife"that
FrancisCollinsandothers(plusmanyresearchersfollowingthem)have
spoken about. And so, the idea traveled fast from the laboratory to the
generalculture.Asearlyasthelate1980s,anewboominsciencefiction
genetic 'information'" may right now give way to a new life science paradigm
"turning from matters of code to matters of substance... to inquiring after the
multidimensional materiality of the protein molecules that give body to cells"
(10).
(^37) For details cf. "The Holy Grail of Human Biology Research."Understanding
Life.FocusonPhysiology.ThePhysiologicalSociety,2017.Web.18June2017.
(^38) From a cultural-critical point of view, the religious overtones of such
pronouncements are once again hard to overlook. Like Christianity in its early
stages, genomics seems to be in need of a canon which would relegate
"apocrypha"tothesidelines.
(^39) AsGarcía-Sancho(110-15)orJamesC.Wilson(25-26)haveshownindetail,
scientists themselves were aware that the conceptual analogy they were using
was notan accurate description butan imaginary construct. In addition,García-
Sancho offers an all-out critique of this conceptual analogy, especially of the
"conflated view of genetic information" (133). Cf. also his extensive
bibliography.