{"id":855,"date":"2006-02-24T13:14:00","date_gmt":"2006-02-24T18:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/gilgamesh-and-the-genome\/"},"modified":"2017-09-02T12:42:03","modified_gmt":"2017-09-02T16:42:03","slug":"gilgamesh-and-the-genome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/gilgamesh-and-the-genome","title":{"rendered":"Gilgamesh and the Genome"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s a blast from the past! Here’s a From the Editor page I wrote in March 2000, when I was a newbie on my pharma magazine! Enjoy<\/em><\/p>\n

Nearly 50 years ago, Francis Watson and James Crick uncovered the double-helical structure of DNA. A little more than a century ago, the fragments of the epic poem of Gilgamesh were discovered in the ruins of ancient Mesopotamia. The tablets on which the poem were written date only a few hundred years after the invention of writing, a discovery that fundamentally changed human culture. The four-letter alphabet of DNA contains the possibilities of life in all its aspects. In both cases, scholars and scientists have spent years trying to decipher these strange languages.<\/p>\n

Both of these sources, in a sense, address the same issue, albeit from opposite directions. Through the mapping of the human genome and the discoveries we shall make of the secrets of individual genes, we learn about the myriad individual components that create a gestalt of human life. Through gene therapy and other advances in biotechnology, we are told, man will someday overcome aging and possibly transcend death.<\/p>\n

Through translating the story of Gilgamesh, we learn that man has always tried to circumvent death. The greatest king of his time (two-thirds divine, one-third man) travels to the limits of the underworld to learn how to overcome mortality. He learns that nothing is permanent. Upon returning to his kingdom of Uruk, all Gilgamesh can do is praise the strength of the city’s walls. Today, not one person in a million could identify Uruk on a map. Nor do those city walls stand. The first hero in literature faces the same limitations as a garbage man in the year 2000. Time passes and unmakes us all.<\/p>\n

Scientists today question whether that process is necessary, and whether it can at least be slowed. The mission of translating the genetic language and making genes into a manipulable objects may accomplish Gilgamesh’s quest, 5000 years later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s a blast from the past! Here’s a From the Editor page I wrote in March 2000, when I was a newbie on my pharma magazine! Enjoy Nearly 50 years ago, Francis Watson and James Crick uncovered the double-helical structure of DNA. A little more than a century ago, the fragments of the epic poem … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Gilgamesh and the Genome”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-literature","category-pharmaceuticals"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-dN","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":160,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/is-there-a-gene-for-perenially-losing-the-big-one","url_meta":{"origin":855,"position":0},"title":"Is there a gene for perenially losing The Big One?","author":"Gil","date":"March 29, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Bill Haseltine has retired from Human Genome Sciences, and Chris Byron in the NYPost takes the opportunity to tear him a new hole.I only mention this because, last fall, I sneaked out of a speech by Haseltine at a translational genomics event I was attending in Phoenix, AZ. Why did\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4323,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/well-0-fer-have-paris","url_meta":{"origin":855,"position":1},"title":"We’ll 0-fer Have Paris","author":"Gil","date":"August 12, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"A few weeks ago, I ran the 0-fer test on the first volume of the new Paris Review Interviews series. Since I'm utterly unimaginative, let's go check out Volume 2 and see which literary titans I've managed to avoid completely! Graham Greene (1953) \u00e2\u20ac\u201d I think I tried reading The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "0-fer"","block_context":{"text":"0-fer","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature\/0-fer"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0312361750","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/editorials","url_meta":{"origin":855,"position":2},"title":"Editorials","author":"Gil","date":"March 18, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"As I mentioned earlier, I edit a pharmaceutical trade magazine by day. Every issue (9, plus a supplement) I write \"From the Editor,\" a page that's at least ostensibly supposed to be about the pharma & biopharma industry and the contract services and outsourcing arena that we cover. Since the\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/editorials#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15427,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-497-dave-mckean","url_meta":{"origin":855,"position":3},"title":"Episode 497 – Dave McKean","author":"Gil","date":"August 2, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 497: Dave McKean \"Everything I see as making up my sense of self is about individual humans having a passion to create something, reaching out to me through their work. I get to see the world through their eyes, full of intent, full of the history of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/mckean2022comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C570&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/mckean2022comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C570&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/mckean2022comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C570&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/mckean2022comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C570&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/mckean2022comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C570&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":710,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/biomarkers-bulls","url_meta":{"origin":855,"position":4},"title":"Biomarkers & Bulls","author":"Gil","date":"October 4, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"[Here's my From the Editor page for the October issue of Contract Pharma]I was all set to write about disaster response and the ways we should prepare for cataclysms both natural and manmade, but another subject came up, so I have to cut that sermon-ette down to a single piece\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2107,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/youve-read-the-epic-poem-now-play-the-arcade-game","url_meta":{"origin":855,"position":5},"title":"You’ve read the epic poem, now play the arcade game!","author":"Gil","date":"June 20, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Paradise Lost: They told him to go to Hell. They should have finished the job.\"","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/youve-read-the-epic-poem-now-play-the-arcade-game#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=855"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10541,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855\/revisions\/10541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}