according to "the google story" by pulitzer prize winner david vise, the world's most popular internet search engine and the scientists involved believe the project will vastly improve future medical care, plus considerably speed up the pace of medical and genetic research.
the book contends that google has already had access to the details of about 30,000 sets of human genes mapped by geneticist craig venter and others from the national institutes of health.
venter, interviewed for the book, is quoted as saying the project is something "geneticists have wanted to do for generations."
"we need to use the largest computers in the world," venter reportedly said. "working with google, we are trying to characterize all the genes on the planet and understand their evolutionary development."
it's hard to imagine such a project not generating any controversy.
people already fear that there is too much private information available on the internet. privacy concerns are sure to grow worse when people's genes, which contain clues to their physical traits or predispositions to disease, are made available online.
read the full story on eweek.com: google gene project comes into question