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Genetics finding its place in larger living schemes

The discovery of the genetic code has touched off an explosion of biotechnology, much of it based on the notion that there exists a programme underlying life that can now be read, and rewritten. The belief that scientists have decoded life's inner workings has aroused public enthusiasm and attracted venture capital. But, properly understood, the results of genetics research have undermined the notion that genes are the key to organismic development and pathology. There is much - including the realization that even 'single gene' disorders are influenced by multiple genes and by environment; the slow pace of associating genes with diseases; the failure of identification of 'disease genes' to lead to therapies; the poor predictive power of genetic tests; and technical problems with attempts at gene modification - to suggest that genes are inextricable from the complexity of biological systems, and that living things are not reducible to genetic code. Although scientists and biotechnology corporations have fallen far short of fulfilling initial ambitions, their enormous investment of financial and intellectual capital dictates their ongoing pursuit of the genetic 'revolution'. But critical analysis of the record to date is now vital. Resistance to genetics-based narratives of organism physiology and development may now be in order. Genetics can no longer be regarded uncritically as the key to all biologically related problems.