Guardian
> >What has also emerged from the Human Genome Project is just how dynamic
> >and
> > fluid our genetic make-up can be, and the extent to which it is influenced
> > by nutrition, pollution, disease, family life and education.
> At 19:21 14/11/03 +0000, Ray Thomas wrote: >This is really
> fascinating...
No, it is journalistic hyperbole. My understanding of the HGP is that it
analysed the DNA sequence of a specific individual (or a very small
number), and I have been baffled as to how the proponents expect to extend
this to a meaningful understanding of the range of variation that might be
(a) usual (b) helpful (c) random and irrelevant (d) harmful or (e)
quickly fatal within units that might be identified as "genes". I suspect
that as our understanding improves we will move from any idea of genes as
discrete, non-interacting, sequences of bases.
In respect of the topic under discussion, appealing to the HGP has, in my
view, no more force than touching a rabbit's foot.
R. Allan Reese Email: [log in to unmask]
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