[ExI] DNA - It's complicated!

spike spike66 at att.net
Sat Dec 14 15:36:21 UTC 2013



-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org
[mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of BillK
>...
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Forbes has a good overview of the new research.

<http://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonykosner/2013/12/13/seven-ways-to-look-at-
the-double-meaning-of-dna-code/>

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I think that they are saying that 23andMe's view that certain genes are risk
factors for disease is too simplistic.

BillK

_______________________________________________

Ja.  Had our current president thought of that defense, he wouldn't have had
to offer his half-hearted apology.  Instead of vaguely hinted that he was
lying, he could have said, "When I said 'If you like you current healthcare
plan you can keep your current healthcare plan, period end of story,' my
view of certain risk factors was too simplistic."

This new DNA finding is really cool.  Every time we think we are getting to
the center of this onion we find new layers of subtlety.

If you look at what 23andMe actually provides, they only tell you the risk
multiplication over the population without those genes.  It looks to me like
this is a perfectly legitimate and helpful service.  It also opens the
possibility to enable truly useful crowd-sourced science.  We could create
Reddit groups for volunteers for instance, where people with elevated risk
of yakkity yak or bla bla could anonymously share related risk factors and
study it, using data that is available in no other way.  

I am so frustrated we have in our hands a database of 400k proles with a
potential wealth of info, yet we still aren't effectively using it.  The one
group that seems to have taken off is the one for 2-sigma and above
Neanderthal genes.  Sheesh, that doesn't help us.  Not much.  Or maybe it
will, but there is so much more we can do.  For instance, we should have a
Reddit group for those with both markers 23andMe identifies as increasing
risk of developing type 1 diabetes.  Oy, my evolution, this is a chance to
do some excellent and useful science, and DAMMIT I don't how to get such a
thing organized, I don't even know how to set up a Reddit group.  Have we
any Reddit hipsters eager to serve humanity?

Idea, we have the high school science fair, but it is discouraging how so
many students go over and over and over the same damn ground, producing copy
after copy of projects that have won in the past, but nothing useful is
discovered.  We should try to start a fad where science fair students think
of a theory on correlation of a pair of genes and a condition, then they
collect data from 23andMe, and calculate the coefficients.  Then all the
participants who do that particular type of project get a special ribbon or
a some kind of bangle for their resumes, for if they do it right, they have
learned a useful skill.

Before long, some of the young code hipsters will figure out a way to do
this in software.

There is science here struggling to emerge from the shadows.  23andMe is
practically giving away the info, now our job is to give back by
interpreting it.

Help me Obi BillK-nobi.
  
spike 




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