Science Quote by Thomas R. Cech

Cech is doing two things at once: defending a landmark scientific enterprise while quietly conceding that its public halo can be a liability. The Human Genome Project arrived wrapped in a near-cinematic narrative of progress - a readable “book of life,” a cure factory, a triumph of technocracy. By naming the “great excitement and positive press,” he signals awareness that the project’s reputation has been partly manufactured by media optimism and institutional messaging. That’s not a takedown; it’s a calibration.

The pivot - “but there are people who have concerns that are quite reasonable” - is the key rhetorical move. It’s an inoculation against the common scientific reflex to dismiss criticism as ignorance or superstition. Cech grants legitimacy to anxiety before he diagnoses it. Then comes the soft edge: “frightened of things they don’t understand.” That line can read as empathetic, but it also subtly reasserts hierarchy. The public is positioned as anxious and underinformed; the scientist is positioned as interpreter and reassurance engine. The subtext is paternalistic in the classic “public understanding of science” mode: if we just explain it better, fear will dissipate.

Context matters. In the genome era, the fear wasn’t abstract. It was about genetic discrimination by employers or insurers, eugenic revival packaged as “risk reduction,” ownership of genetic data, and who profits from patenting sequences. Calling those worries “reasonable” is an acknowledgement that the problem isn’t only comprehension; it’s power. The quote works because it tries to keep the promise of genomics intact while conceding that the social consequences are where the real argument lives.