Refining the image....

[j. d. worthington]

Somewhat related to the discussion on DNA databases, but with a difference....

Study: Humans' DNA not quite so similar - Yahoo! News

Title: "Study: Humans' DNA not quite so similar", from AP, by Malcolm Ritter, datelined Mon., Sep. 3, 2007.

I'm more than a little concerned about the database and publishing of such information (especially given the current climate), but like it or not it seems, here it comes....

[woodsman]

yeah I have to say I'm against any kind of publication of genetic information for any reason unless involved in criminal investigation, and even then only the police etc. would see it. Thats funny though, in Biology today we were discussing how similar people (in terms of 99.9% of genomes etc.) are and I'll have to tell Mr.Millar he's somewhat outdated and innacurate. Should be fun.

[Curt Chiarelli]

I'm wondering how soon will racist organizations be pouncing upon this nine tenths revision and bandying it around as proof that their beliefs have been vindicated?

[woodsman]

Give them, Say a week, but then they do tend to be shortsighted etc. So maybe we have a little longer.

[HardScienceFan]

it all depends what you are looking for and expecting to see

Global patterns of human DNA sequence variation (haplotypes) defined by common single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have important implications for identifying disease associations and human traits. We have used high-density oligonucleotide arrays, in combination with somatic cell genetics, to identify a large fraction of all common human chromosome 21 SNPs and to directly observe the haplotype structure defined by these SNPs. This structure reveals blocks of limited haplotype diversity in which more than 80% of a global human sample can typically be characterized by only three common haplotypes.