The human genome project will have wide reaching consequences for every human on the planet, born or unborn. The most ambitious biological research problem ever undertaken, and possibly the most controversial, it aims to map all the genes spelled out by the entire three-billion-letter code embodied in the DNA of human cells. This work examines the protracted struggle to launch the project, political and scientific, drawing on many primary sources. For anyone interested in the future of gene research this will make for fascinating reading.