Genetics, Bioethics and Space Travel: GATTACA

Regulars Cyberbiochemist Genetics, Bioethics and Space Travel: GATTACA

Clare Sansom (Birbeck College, London, UK)

It has been said that all stories set in the future say more about the concerns of the time in which they are Downloaded from http://portlandpress.com/biochemist/article-pdf/34/6/34/3328/bio034060034.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 written than they do about future possibilities. Long before the genome era, writers were investigating the possibility of changing the biological make-up of humans. Questions about human biology, identity and eugenics (from the Greek ‘well-born’) have been raised by writers ever since Plato; classic novels addressing these issues include H.G. Wells’s The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896) and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1931). Eugenics in fiction passed out of fashion after the Second World War, but recent developments in genetics and genomics have brought these ideas into the foreground again.

The science fiction filmGATTACA was released in 1997, astronaut. He studies and trains hard despite knowing that, only 2 years after the publication of the first bacterial thanks to his genetic identity, he has zero chance of success: genome sequence. The story it tells is therefore one of the “The only way you’ll see the inside of a spaceship will be first fictional explorations of these issues in the genome if you’re cleaning it”, says his father, dispassionately. It is era. For this Christmas edition of The Biochemist, your almost impossible for him to escape the genetic identity that Cyberbiochemist editor is turning film critic to confirms him as a member of the underclass, as his profile discuss it. can be read from the smallest trace of blood, cells, hair or The film is set in a ‘not-too-distant even urine. (The scientific accuracy of the last named seems future’ in which most foetuses are selected tenuous, to say the least.) through pre-implantation diagnosis Escape is almost impossible, but not quite. Vincent to have the best possible genetic seeks out the services of a shady ‘DNA broker’ who inheritance. In contrast, the film’s matches him with Jerome, a world-class swimmer hero, Vincent, was conceived with an almost perfect genetic profile – he apparently and born, as we would say, has an IQ in the 200s – who was disabled in an accident. naturally. Seconds after his The deal is that Vincent, to all purposes, ‘becomes’ Jerome, birth, his genome is read and who lends him the body matter he needs to prove his new his future determined. His identity; the original Jerome, hidden from the eyes of a read-out suggests myopia, a society conditioned to expect physical perfection, is able to high chance of developing live in secluded style from his double’s earnings. mental illness, a heart defect The second half of the film follows Vincent/Jerome and an almost certain early in the days before he sets of on a year-long expedition to death. As an ‘In-Valid’, Saturn’s moon, Titan. I can, without giving away too many he will only be entitled plot spoilers, reveal that it becomes both a detective story to a menial job, unlike and a love story. Vincent’s own DNA is found near the dead his genetically selected body of a disliked administrator, casting initial suspicion on younger brother Anton. “an unregistered In-Valid” and there are tense scenes when He is even barred from he is reunited with his brother Anton. The concluding scenes the kindergarten of his reveal Vincent as by far the strongest character: his spirit and parents’ choice because his determination have overcome his poor genetic inheritance, health cannot be insured. whereas Anton, Jerome and others remain trapped by their This is a near future superior identities. Jerome confesses that, devastated by in which space travel has only winning silver despite his genetics predicting gold, his become almost routine, accident was actually an unsuccessful suicide attempt. and the young Vincent Ethan Hawke plays Vincent/Jerome, with the better- dreams of a career as an known Jude Law in the supporting role of the original

Jerome. All main characters are completely believable, and are shown for a second or two longer than all others in all the screenplay is immaculate. I did find it rather cold and on-screen text. Each character’s computer-based identity clinical, which may be what the director had in mind: a world document shows some DNA code, and, at one point, the with so little deviation from a genetic ideal might be expected disabled Jerome has to struggle up a staircase in the form of to be a dull one. The ethical issues raised by pre-implantation a double helix. Despite the immense progress that genomics genetic diagnosis taken to such extremes are shown starkly in has made in the 15 years since the film was made, it has the scene in which Vincent’s parents choose the embryo that dated surprisingly well. Rather oddly, however, very little use will become his brother. They are happy to rule out diseases is made of the Internet, already decades old in 1997: there and to select another boy, but become acutely uncomfortable are several shots of characters with heavy paper print-outs of by being persuaded to rule out common characteristics such DNA sequences. as baldness, myopia and obesity. Overall, the film leaves viewers with the upbeat message GATTACA is full of references to DNA, genetics and that we are more than our genes, while raising questions Downloaded from http://portlandpress.com/biochemist/article-pdf/34/6/34/3328/bio034060034.pdf by guest on 27 September 2021 the genetic code, starting, of course, with its title. Although about genetic determinism, privacy and discrimination that this refers in the plot to the elite GATTACA Aerospace may be even more relevant in future decades than they are Corporation where ‘Jerome’ works as an astronaut, it is today. Will people still be discussing these in the next century, just as clearly based on the single-letter DNA code. During when GATTACA is as old as The Island of Doctor Moreau is the opening and closing credits, the letters A, C, G and T today? I suspect so. ■

Best of the web A sideways look Mark Burgess (Executive Editor) occasionally quotes from a book called The Young Man’s Book of Amusement, which does exist and is available on Google Books. This book, published in 1850, is full of the most Lateral Science by Roger Curry (http://lateralscience. dangerous and irresponsible experiments. Here is a typical example: “take about a third part blogspot.co.uk/) is a blog that embraces all sorts of science of a grain of fulminating silver, and put it into the wick of a candle, which is to be burned and engineering subjects, unearthing unusual and eclectic by the person you wish to surprise. When the flame reaches the powder, it will immediately documents and facts with excerpts from books, embedded explode with a stunning report. Similar tricks may be played by placing the silver in a pair of videos and links. snuffers, boots, shoes, walking-stick, &c.” One of the specialties is ‘first known examples of’, which The posts are not in sequential order; it is a site to browse (although it does have a good are often earlier than one could guess; so there is an account search engine). More emphatically than usual: do not try these experiments at home (or of the 1836 discovery of acetylene by Edmund Davy (cousin anywhere else, frankly). ■ to Sir Humphry), an early LED from Electrical World of 9 February 1907, and harnessing lightning in the Alps to produce a 15 million volt atom smasher in 1927–1928 [see Zeitschrift für Physik 70 (1931), 30]. There are also oddities such as a 1929 letter from the Quarterly Journal of Science, Literature and Art on chlorine as an antidote to cyanide poisoning (in a cat) an observation of the Leidenfrost Effect in lead floating on molten iron from 1865, an account of the evolution of light during crystallization from 1835 and an 1842 report of arsine (AsH3) poisoning from using impure sulfuric acid to generate hydrogen. Interspersed with these genuine bits of scientific history are the exploits of ‘Ernest Glitch of Weardale’ who makes modern apparatus with the materials and techniques of the 19th Century; for instance, a nitrogen TEA (transversely excited, atmospheric pressure) laser, using air as the lasing medium. To confuse matters a little more, Glitch The 1920s precursor to CERN: a 4 metre spark during a thunderstorm