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【英文原文1】
The Pivotal1) Figure In the Decoding2) of The Human Genome3)
Bill Clinton and Tony Blair linked up by satellite on June ２６to announce the completion of the first draft of the human genome．Even when the hype is discounted，decoding the ３bn chemical“letters”of the genome is likely to have a huge impact on science，medicine and our perception of what it means to be human．Although thousands of scientists in dozens of laboratories around the world share credit for the achievement，one individual can be singled out for recognition：Craig Venter．
Dr．Venter，president of Celera，the US genomics company，may represent just one side of the race between the private and public efforts to decode the book of life．But no one stands out in the same way among the leaders of the public Human Genome Project．The controversial4) Californian has made vital contributions to the whole enterprise，and his competitive pressure spurred on the public project．
That is certainly his view．“I have been the catalyst for making everything happen on the [fastest possible] time course，”he says．“Some of my worst critics have said I only speeded things up by a year――and even that would have biomedical5) research――while the most optimistic6) ones have said I made １０years’ difference．”
Some leaders of the public project are happy to acknowledge Dr．Venter’ s contribution．Trevor Hawkins，director of the US Joint Genome Institute，says：“The fact that we are sitting here with a completed draft genome is１００percent due to Craig and his bold initiative of introducing gene sequencing on an industrial scale，with hundreds of machines working round the c lock．”
Celera Genomics was founded in May １９９８as a subsidiary of Perkin－Elmer，the scientific instruments company．（Since then Perkin－Elmer has changed name twice，first to PE and then to Applera．）Equipped with one of the world’ s most powerful civil super－computer facilities and ３００of the latest gene sequencing machines from PE’s Applied Biosystems subsidiary7)，Dr ．Venter set up shop close to the National Institutes of Health（NIH）in Bethesda，Maryland――the federally funded research campus where he had started his career in genomics．
