January 30, 1994

The Human Genome Project, an international quest to spell out the precise sequence of the three billion letters in the human genetic code, is still more than a decade from completion. But in a rapid blurring of big science and big business, the effort has already created its first millionaires. One is J. Craig Venter, who as a Federal employee at the National Institutes of Health developed crucial technology for spelling out -- or "sequencing" -- long strands of genetic code. Then, a little more than a year ago, he left to join a venture to commercialize the technology. Now, even before they have a product, Dr. Venter and his backers have raised millions of dollars by selling public shares of stock in their venture, Human Genome Sciences Inc., of Bethesda, Md. Differing Perspectives Depending on one's perspective, Dr. Venter and his company typify the ideal link between Government-supported basic science and the entrepreneurial verve necessary for seeing that the fruits of the Human Genome Project make their way into the medical marketplace. But some scientists are uneasy -- ethically and professionally -- with the idea of their colleagues profiting from the research for which the Government has paid.

"THE mere existence of a problem," a Yiddish proverb tells us, "is no proof of the existence of a solution." Disheartening or not, it would be hard to imagine a better axiom about criminal violence, which public opinion polls tell us has replaced the economy as Americans' foremost concern. Sensitive to the growing fear and disgust, politicians and social analysts are suddenly offering another round of solutions, some original, others time-worn, and most advertised as innovative. But if history is a teacher, most promise disillusionment. The problem of crime can be attacked, but it cannot be solved -- at least not in the short run, and probably not by any steps that are politically realistic, or that a free people would tolerate.

WHEN Charles de Gaulle wrote to Lyndon B. Johnson to announce France's withdrawal from the military command of NATO and to request the removal of American soldiers in France, Secretary of State Dean Rusk pointedly asked the French President, "Does that include the dead Americans in military cemeteries as well?" Almost three decades later, the tetchiness between the United States and France has not disappeared. The exasperation that once led Eisenhower to inveigh against "those damn French" has recently erupted over issues as various as agricultural trade and suggestions that the "Jurassic Park" dinosaurs may be agents of marauding American cultural imperialism.

A $35 million, 199-bed, seven-story nursing home specializing in the care of patients with AIDS or tuberculosis, as well as of elderly people requiring long-term care, is to open on March 1 in the Bronx. The St. Barnabas Nursing Home, on the campus of St. Barnabas Hospital at East 183d Street and Third Avenue, is connected to the fourth floor of the hospital by an enclosed bridge.

Leaders of the National Governors' Association are seeking new power to tax and regulate health plans of large corporations so that states can forge ahead on their own if the Federal Government fails to act. Article, page 14