PZ Myers nicely clued us in to a recent article at the Wall Street Journal online. (Warning: if you manually allow/disallow cookies, you're in for a major clickfest. Bad Wall Street Journal! No cookie!) Apparently, when it comes to the human genome, some folks want to take the express lane:

The X Prize Foundation, sponsor of a widely noted 2004 award for developing a reusable rocket suitable for private space travel, says it is now teaming with a wealthy Canadian geologist to offer $10 million to any team that can completely decode the genes of 100 people in 10 days.

The idea, of course, is to inspire contestants to develop new and improved (read: faster and cheaper) genome sequencing and analysis technologies and techniques, which could then be applied to more practical applications — like "personalized medicine" which would be specifically engineered to match an individual's genetic traits, improving the odds of beneficial effects.

(Side note: PZ misreports the challenge as 100 genomes in 100 days. Which would naturally be a completely unimpressive feat. Seriously, who couldn't sequence 100 genomes given three months? Well, other than a bunch of genetically ill-equipped troglodytes.)

So okay, we dig it so far. And what will the winners of the contest be doing for an encore?

As an encore, the winning team will be paid $1 million more to decode another 100 people's genes, including a bevy of wealthy donors and celebrities.

You know, you had us at "human genome." Unfortunately, what you didn't have back there was public interest. And, as we all know, the only way to get the public interested in anything is to include those gods-among-men that we call...celebrities.

Hey, we've come to accept the celebrity-worship culture that saturates the civilization of hairless apes that plagues our planet, but that doesn't mean we have to like it. We're also not fond of those who really think that celebrity alone is something to be, well, celebrated.

[Founder of the X Prize Foundation] Mr. Diamandis says the second batch of 100 volunteers, known as the "Genome 100," will be chosen and announced over time and will include ordinary people as well as celebrities.

But it really irks us when the assumption is made that those who aren't celebrities are therefore ordinary. Gee, Pete Diamandis, thanks for including us peons in your little contest. We're thrilled, really. What a rush.

Come on! Is anyone really deluded enough to think that "celebrity" is some unique genetic component that guarantees certain people success, fame and money? How very Gattaca of them. And utterly unscientific. There are too many non-genetic factors that shape the course of any one person's life; trying to boil it all down to a series of letter codes on a DNA map isn't just unpoetic, it's bad science.

In Diamandis' defense, though, that tripe might have been the Wall Street Journal talking. In which case our comments go double for them, because we all know the mainstream media is just asking for it.

The conversation thread over at Pharyngula elicited some good points. For one thing, PZ and others have suggested that a more interesting contest would involve the genetic sequencing of 100 species instead of 100 humans. While absolutely true — it would be more interesting, and even more useful in the long run — it probably wouldn't generate the public attention Diamandis is aiming for, and wouldn't necessarily provide the immediate results that would generate federal and private funding of near-future applications.

TAW suggests that rather than a smattering of yokels in among the celebrities, the contest should challenge genome hunters to sequence 100 individuals with 100 different genetic diseases. This fits in with part of Diamandis' plan:

...several disease-oriented groups, including the March of Dimes, will be permitted to nominate people with specific diseases to have their DNA deciphered in hopes of discovering the genetic roots of those illnesses.

Of course, we have to wonder why anyone would think it should take a contest to motivate scientists to seek genetic causes of and solutions to diseases.

All in all, it's a neat idea, and we hope it's at least as successful as Diamandis' previous X Prize, which was won by Burt Rutan and his Scaled Composites team when they sent SpaceShipOne just outside of Earth's atmosphere. In this age of reality television, just a generation removed from the game show craze, maybe the only way to make any scientific progress is to offer people a prize.

But damn, we hope not.