Genes, genes, and more genes
By John Travis
In the race for genes, a desire for publicity seems to be winning out over the peer-review process. Instead of scientific publication, genome researchers are increasingly turning to press releases and news conferences to present their findings.
In the past few weeks alone, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced that its scientists had completed a “rough draft” of the DNA sequence of three human chromosomes, a controversial biotech firm reported that it had sequenced all the DNA of a person, and an agricultural company surprised plant scientists by saying that it had deciphered almost all the genes of rice and would make that information freely available.