A 25 E xplorers have traditionally set out from familiar ports toward the unknown, creating maps of where they have been for others to follow.With time, these rough drawings are refined by those who come in their wake so that coastlines are charted, mountains measured, and rivers delineated to the mile.Today, scientists are grappling with a new map-that of the human genome-but unlike the one you can barely fold in your car, this map describes a landscape that remains almost a complete mystery: the 3.2 billion letters of DN A that code for the creation of a human being.The human genome is the total amount of DN A spooled into a set of 23 chromosomes found in the nucleus of every human cell.It's formed when the chromosomes of the male's sperm fuse with those of the female's egg to form a single-celled embryo, and it contains the genetic "instructions" that allow Focus • Charting the Map of Life
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Scott A. Fields (2001) studied this question.