A new spirit of competition between academic and commercial researchers is invigorating the Human Genome Project, the international effort to unravel our entire genetic code. As a result of two funding commitments made this month - about $200m each from Perkin-Elmer, the US scientific instrument company, and the Wellcome Trust, the UK medical charity - the race to spell out all 3bn chemical letters in the genetic "book of life" could be over some time between 2002 and 2005.