The DNA Mystique: The Gene as a Cultural Icon

3. Sacred DNA

Sacred DNA n Stephen Spielberg's popular 1982 film E. T., the extraterrestrial hero, apparently dying, lies on an operating table; suddenly a scientist runs in shouting, uHe's got DNA!" Like many other cues in the widely admired movie, this reference to E.T.'s DNA reflects familiar ideas. It is part of a cultural narrative in which DNA is removed from history: this essential molecule is seen, not as a consequence of the conditions under which life evolved on Earth, but as an entity present in all living things regardless of their planet of origin. Indeed, discovering DNA in E.T.'s body is analogous to finding the King James Bible in the hold of a Martian spaceship. Such a discovery liberates the molecular text from history and makes it seem truly universal. 38 SACR[D DNA The scientific world view is based on belief in an underlying order in nature, and many scientists search, with nearly religious conviction, for an ultimate, unifying principle that will reveal the most fundamental laws.1 Physicists in particular have interpreted their work in cosmic terms. Stephen Hawking, in A Brief History of Time, proclaimed that scientists reveal "the mind of God."2 Nobelist Steven Weinberg, in Dreams of a Final Theory, searched for the principles that would explain all the laws of nature.3 Physicist George Smoot has compared the big-bang theory to "the driving mechanism for the universe, and isn't that what God is?"4 And Leon Lederman, another Nobel Prize-winning physicist, has named the subatomic entity that he believes determines everything the "God Particle." He has stated that he hopes to see all of physics reduced to a formula so simple and so elegant it will fit on a T-shirt.5 Biologists, too, have sought to unify biological knowledge through elucidation of the fundamental properties of life. In the 1930s in Britain and the United States, this effort took the form of the "evolutionary synthesis," which seemed to reconcile Darwinism and Mendelism-selectionism and genetics-theories initially seen as contradictory. The architects of the synthesis were able to promote the idea that biological change through time-evolution-could serve as the intellectual centerpiece for the study of life.6 In the same period, the rise of molecular biology promised to explain life at its most fundamental physico-chemical level, the double helix of DNA.7 And in 1975 entomologist E. o. Wilson announced a "new synthesis" that drew on both evolutionary biology and molecular biology to explain the human social order in biological terms.8 One of the most important entities in the search for an essential, unifying biological principle, then, has been DNA, the so-called "secret of life." In the 1990s geneticists, describing the genome as the "Bible," the "Book of Man," and the "Holy Grail," convey an image of this molecular structure not only as a powerful biological entity but also as a sacred text that can explain the natural and moral order. Former director of the Human Genome Project and Nobelist 39 THE DNA MYSTIQUE James Watson has proclaimed that DNA is "what makes us human."9 "Is DNA God?" asks a skeptical medical student in an essay in The Pharos, a medical journal: "Given [its] essential roles in the origin, evolution and maintenance of life, it is tempting to wonder if this twisted sugar string of purine and pyrimidine base beads is, in fact, God."IO Such spiritual imagery sets the tone for popular accounts of DNA, fueling narratives of genetic essentialism and giving mystical powers to a molecular structure. Indeed, DNA has assumed a cultural meaning similar to that of the Biblical soul. It has become a sacred entity, a way to explore fundamental questions about human life, to define the essence of human existence, and to imagine immortality. Like the Christian soul, DNA is an invisible but material entity, an "extract of the body" that has "permanence leading to immortality."ll And like the Christian soul, DNA seems relevant to concerns about morality, personhood, and social place. It is not a coincidence that the cultural depiction of DNA shares many characteristics with the immortal soul of Christian thought; those describing DNA often draw on the most powerful images of Christianity to convey its importance. Scientists and popularizers borrow the compelling concepts of one belief system to meet the needs of another in an effort to help...