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By Natalie Angier
Posted Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2000, at 4:03 PM ET

Jonathan,

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Francis Galton's desire to breed a crop of superior human beings was doomed to fail for many reasons, not the least being the problem of monocultures. Sex evolved for the sake of diversity. Eliminate diversity, and you end up with a line of quivering hothouse clones at grave risk of being wiped out by one clever new microbe. Everybody knows the risk of inbreeding. That's why each election cycle the candidates go to ludicrous lengths to portray themselves as "outsiders"--but not too outsider, not too loop-de-loo Ross Perot outsider. So I guess we choose our presidents the way we choose our mates: We want somebody who's sort of like us, but just different enough to give us that immunological edge. Somebody smart, but not too smart--Mensa waiting-list material, max. Born alpha stock, minus the smirk.

And since a person's intimate chemistry--immune signature, testosterone level, stress hormones--is surely conveyed in his or her bodily secretions, I propose that the best way to pick a president would be to smell the candidates' T-shirts.

You first.

As for improving the human race through gene therapy, a bit of full disclosure here: My husband, Rick Weiss of the Washington Post, has been hammering away the last few months at the lapses in the gene-therapy business, which are by no means confined to the University of Pennsylvania and the death of Jesse Gelsinger. It turns out that a lot of the gene-therapy experiments under way are dismally substandard--poorly conceived, hastily approved and sloppily executed. Nobody has been following the rules. Nobody has been telling the feds when things go awry, as they are required to. Moreover, the favorite viral package of gene therapists, the nasty little adenovirus, has proved to be a dangerous, unpredictable character. Yes, it's good at getting into cells, which is why researchers like to use it as a delivery van, but it also can provoke unexpected toxic reactions in people.

Apart from the side effects and hazards of gene therapy, the technique doesn't even work! Some 5,000 patients have taken part in about 300 gene-therapy trials, and to date not a single person has been cured of a single disease. Many scientists believe that the field was rushed into human trials far too precipitously. A lot of journalists, myself included, got out our pompoms and ballyhooed gene therapy early on, and the enthusiasm was as infectious as, well, an adenovirus. Companies saw a potential gold rush, and some scientists saw it, too.

I used to believe that scientists were motivated not by money but by good old fashioned ego, a hunger to be applauded by their peers. Jim Wilson, who led the University of Pennsylvania project in which Jesse Gelsinger died, is a very good scientist. I've known him for 15 years. I didn't think the potential for financial gain fed into his psychic equations.

But Wilson has his biotech company, and an enormous, very expensive house, and should the University of Pennsylvania decide to let him go--the case is still pending--he's prepared to ship his academic operation over to his private firm, and keep slogging ahead as an entrepreneur.

It's nice to be rich. As I'm sure Darva Conger would attest, it's worth sacrificing a lot to be rich. Pride, caution, peace of mind ... Right, Darva?

Darva?

With best wishes from a recovering gene groupie,

Natalie