No Other Gods

Scientists Learn to Repair Faulty Genes but Will One Intervention Put Entire Nations at Risk

Behind the foreboding walls of Massachusetts Harlowe Institute, scores of mentally impaired patients struggle with daily life, barely getting by on counseling and pills. But, less than an hour away, and as yet unknown to Harlowes afflicted, a champion is on their side. Dr. Jonathan Chastain and a young colleague at a company known as GODS are developing cutting-edge medical techniques holding great promise for the mentally ill. Eventually, GODS new formulations are quietly introduced in clinical trials at Harlowe and other institutions. Dramatic responses across a broad sampling of sick patients shake the medical world. What no one has factored in, however, is the subsequent discovery of unintended consequences of the medicine, patient alterations that scientists heretofore would have judged unimaginable. When word gets out, a mle ensues, as opportunists will observe no bounds in attempts to gain control of the technology. With his small enterprise long on promise but short on capital, Chastain agonizes over the future of his discovery: can he bring to market the brave new methodology or will it merely become a tool in the hands of ill-intentioned politicos?