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Censorship and Free Speech – jerf.org

Posted: September 25, 2015 at 1:41 am

Subsections

In the United States, we have the First Amendment of the Constitution that guarantees us certain things.

Censorship and free speech are often seen as being two sides of the same thing, censorship often defined as ``the suppression of free speech''. Perhaps there is nothing wrong with this definition, but for my purposes, I find I need better definitions. My definitions have no particular force, of course, but when grappling with problems, one must often clearly define things before one can even begin discussing the problem, let alone solving it. Thus, I will establish my own personal definitions. There is nothing necessarily wrong with the traditional definitions, but it turns out that the analysis I want to do is not possible with a fuzzy conception of what ``free speech'' is.

It's typically bad essay form to start a section with a dictionary definition, but since I want to contrast my definition with the conventional dictionary definition, it's hard to start with anything else. Free speech is defined by dictionary.com as

Since I don't want to define free speech in terms of censorship, lets remove that and put in its place what people are really afraid of.

Considering both the target of the speech and the publisher of the speech is necessary. Suppose I use an Earthlink-hosted web page to criticise a Sony-released movie. If Earthlink can suppress my speech for any reason they please (on the theory that they own the wires and the site hosting), and have no legal or ethical motivation to not suppress the speech, then in theory, all Sony would have to do is convince Earthlink it is in their best interest to remove my site. The easiest way to do that is simply cut Earthlink a check exceeding the value to Earthlink of continuing to host my page, which is a trivial amount of money to Sony. In the absence of any other considerations, most people would consider this a violation of my right to ``free speech'', even though there may be nothing actually illegal in this scenario. So if we allow the owner of the means of expression to shut down our speech for any reason they see fit, it's only a short economic step to allow the target of the expression to have undue influence, especially an age where the gap between one person's resources and one corporation's resources continues to widen.

Hence the legal concept of a common carrier, both obligated to carry speech regardless of content and legally protected from the content of that speech. The ``safe harbor'' provisions in the DMCA, which further clarified this in the case of online message transmission systems, is actually a good part of the DMCA often overlooked by people who read too much Slashdot and think all of the DMCA is bad. The temptation to hold companies like Earthlink responsible for the content of their customers arises periodically, but it's important to resist this, because there's almost no way to not abuse the corresponding power to edit their customer's content.

I also change ``opinion'' to expression, to better fit the context of this definition, and let's call this ``the right to free speech'':

Though it's not directly related to the definition of free speech, I'd like to add that we expect people to fund their expressions of free speech themselves, and the complementary expectation that nobody is obligated to fund speech they disagree with. For instance, we don't expect people to host comments that are critical about them on their own site.

By far the most important thing that this definition captures that the conventional definitions do not is the symmetry required of true free speech. Free speech is not merely defined in terms of the speakers, but also the listeners.

For structural symmetry with the Free Speech section, let's go ahead and start with the dictionary definition:

The best way to understand my definition of censoring is to consider the stereotypical example of military censorship. During World War II, when Allied soldiers wrote home from the front, all correspondence going home was run through [human] censors to remove any references that might allow someone to place where that soldier was, what that soldier was armed with, etc. The theory was that if that information was removed, it couldn't end up in the hands of the enemy, which could be detrimental to the war effort. The soldier (sender) sent the message home (receiver) via the postal service as a letter (medium). The government censors intercepted that message and modified it before sending it on. If the censor so chose, they could even completely intercept the letter and prevent anything from reaching home.

This leads me naturally to my basic definition of censorship:

There is one last thing that we must take into account, and that is the middleman. Newspapers often receive a press release, but they may process, digest, and editorialize on the basis of that press release, not simply run the press release directly. The Internet is granting astonishing new capabilities to the middlemen, in addition to making the older ways of pre-processing information even easier, and we should not label those all as censorship.

Fortunately, there is a simple criterion we can apply. Do both the sender and the receiver agree to use this information middleman? If so, then no censorship is occurring. This seems intuitive; newspapers aren't really censoring, they're just being newspapers.

You could look at this as not being censorship only as long as the middlemen are being truthful about what sort of information manipulation they are performing. You could equally well say that it is impossible to characterize how a message is being manipulated because a message is such a complicated thing once you take context into account. Basically, since this is simply a side-issue that won't gain us anything, so we leave it to the sender, receiver, and middleman to defend their best interests. It takes the agreement of all three to function, which can be removed at any time, so there is always an out.

For example, many news sites syndicate headlines and allow anybody to display them, including mine. If a news site runs two articles, one for some position and one against, and some syndication user only runs one of the stories, you might claim that distorts the meaning of the original articles taken together. Perhaps this is true, but if the original news site was worried about this occurring, perhaps those stories should not have been syndicated, or perhaps they should have been bound more tightly together, or perhaps this isn't really a distortion. Syndication implies that messages will exist in widely varying contexts.

Like anything else, there is some flex room here. The really important point is to agree that the criterion is basically correct. We can argue about the exact limits later.

So, my final definition:

Going back to the original communication model I outlined earlier, the critical difference between the two definitions becomes clear. Free speech is defined in terms of the endpoints, in terms of the rights of the senders and receivers. Censorship is defined in terms of control over the medium.

The methods of suppressing free speech and the methods of censoring are very different. Suppression of free speech tends to occur through political or legal means. Someone is thrown in jail for criticizing the government, and the police exert their power to remove the controversial content from the Internet. On the receiver's side, consider China, which is an entire country who's government has decided that there are publicly available sites on the Internet that will simply not be available to anybody in that country, such as the Wall Street Journal. Suppressing free speech does not really require a high level of technology, just a high level of vigilance, which all law enforcement requires anyhow.

Censorship, on the other hand, is taking primarily technological forms. Since messages flow on the Internet at speeds vastly surpassing any human's capabilities to understand or process, technology is being developed that attempts to censor Internet content, with generally atrocious results. (A site called Peacefire http://www.peacefire.org has been good at documenting the failures of some of the most popular censorware, as censoring software is known.) Nevertheless, the appeal of such technology to some people is such that in all likelihood, money will continue to be thrown at the problem until some vaguely reasonable method of censorship is found.

The ways of combating suppression of free speech and censorship must also differ. Censorship is primarily technological, and thus technological answers may be found to prevent censorship, though making it politically or legally unacceptable can work. Suppression of free speech, on the other hand, is primarily political and legal, and in order to truly win the battle for free speech, political and legal power will need to be brought to bear.

These definitions are crafted to fit into the modern model of communication I am using, and I have defined them precisely enough that hopefully we can recognize it when we see it, because technology-based censorship can take some truly surprising forms, which we'll see as we go.

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Censorship – RationalWiki

Posted: at 1:41 am

Politically, there exists only what the public knows to exist. ("Politicamente, s existe aquilo que o pblico sabe que existe.")

Censorship usually refers to the state's engaging in activities designed to suppress certain information or ideas. In the past, this has been done by burning books, jailing dissidents, and swamping people with government propaganda. In modern times, the same techniques can be used, but in places like China it is complemented with a nation-wide Internet firewall and the co-option of journalists.

More generally, the term is also used any time people in positions of power try to prevent facts or ideas embarrassing to them from coming to light. This can be done by editorial boards of periodicals and journals, by restricting what their writers can actually research or write about, or by restricting and censoring what they do write, preventing it from being published. This can be done for many reasons, including due to fairly legitimate issues of style, or topics that editors just don't think are right for their publication. This type of censorship is not (and probably should not be) illegal; to force a journal or web site to promote ideas the owners and editors find anathema would be a violation of free speech. Actual censorship, however, is usually done much more maliciously and threats (financial, legal or physical) can be made to prevent something going to publication.

One pernicious result of this "right to not publish" can result in a form of censorship wherein all "major" outlets of information are owned by large corporations, which tend to have certain interests in common, and might, as a group, make it very hard to find information critical of those interests.

Censorship can also come from a government level, and it is this that is usually considered the worst kind of censorship. While individual corporations or private ventures have a right to control the information they host, and their readers are welcome to go elsewhere for their information, governments have a hold over everybody without exception. This leads to a population at large being denied information and more often than not, forcibly fed incorrect information. It should be noted that, while citizens in most Western countries are safe against government censorship (for the most part, at least), other places have almost completely state-run media where literally no alternative exists for the public to access their information. In recent years, China has been somewhat notorious in censoring large portions of the internet from its citizens.

In modern times, due to ubiquitous channels of mass communication, a kind of censorship can be performed (intentionally or otherwise) by swamping the people with other information to hide some particular point. This form of censorship is associated with the Huxleyan flavour of dystopia (e.g. Brave New World),[1] in which pleasurable, visceral, immediate, concrete stimuli (e.g., supermodels, baby bumps, or Charlie Sheen) crowd out troubling, cerebral, long-range, abstract stimuli (e.g., global warming, nuclear safety, the epidemiological consequences of vaccination refusal).[2]

Counterprotests "shouting down" a group of people are sometimes accused of being censorship, but since they don't usually actually prevent or deny the free expression of what they are protesting, again, this is not really censorship. But the waters can get murky at times!

Also, there is the now almost time-honored way of releasing "bad" political news - do it on Friday evening, after the major news outlets have wrapped up their stories. By Monday, it's not news any more, and often gets much less attention that it might have otherwise. This was brought to light when someone mentioned that 11th September 2001 was a "good day to bury bad news".[3]

The United States has recently seen more use of this insidious form of censorship. In order to "accommodate" demonstrators at high-profile events, they are shepherded into a pre-assigned area rather being allowed their right of free assembly. These areas are usually placed well out of the media spotlight - for instance, at the 2004 Democratic Party Convention in Boston, the "free speech zone" was some distance away from the building where the convention was held - in a wasteland of construction debris and fences under a roadway that was partially dismantled.

The Bible has at times been noted as containing unsuitable content which would likely result in its censorship in some areas were it not for its religious significance. Prior to the Protestant Reformation, Bible translations into local languages were often censored or prohibited.

It is often claimed by conspiracy theorists or people attacking the Christian religion that a large number of books were rejected or suppressed from the official Bible in order to hide divine revelation or to prevent embarrassment. This is highly misleading. While there are a large number of apocryphal religious Jewish and Christian religious texts, very few of them were ever widely regarded as authentic. Of the early apocryphal works, only The Shepherd of Hermas, the Epistle of Barnabas, the Apocalypse of Peter, and the Gospel of the Hebrews ever appeared to have much currency outside of small sub-groups of Christians, and even they were considered widely controversial or noted as being "despised" by many early members of the Church. The books which today make up the New Testament are believed to have all originated in the first or second centuries CE, and the contents of those works are considered to be very well preserved, with only a few notable differences (most notably the end of the Gospel of Mark, which may have been written after the rest of the Gospel).

Many of the apocryphal religious writings were censored by the early Church; it is noted that the Apocalypse of Peter was, at one point, forbidden to be read in Church, presumably indicating that they did not consider it to be holy scripture.

One notable example of a highly successful piece of apocryphal writing was the Book of Mormon, written by Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of Latter Day Saints. It was first published in 1830, a very long time after other biblical apocrypha had been dismissed; it is universally rejected by all other Christian sects. There have been numerous other, less successful attempts at creating new Christian canon.

This varies depending on the country and local views and laws.

Many "rental" and even "on sale" videos are censored. Scenes involving nudity, especially of the male frontal variety, are usually removed. Sometimes one will see both versions on offer, with different ratings on the box. When offered as television broadcasts, similar steps are also taken, with additional editing often employed to make the film fit its time slot. This is sometimes done to lower the level of gore for a film to be broadcast at particular times. For American television in particular, bad words (which are considered worse than all-out gun-toting violence) are also bleeped, cut, or voiced over.

In some parts of continental Europe there is almost no censorship of sexual scenes. In Spain, for example, late-night free-to-air local channels may broadcast uncut hardcore pornography.

In the UK, the BBFC will not censor movies without the permission of the film's producers, but this censorship may be necessary in order to give the movie a specific rating. For example, to preserve its PG rating, Star Wars Episode II is censored to remove a headbutt that would have given the film a 12A rating if it had been left in. Similar guidelines apply for nudity and bad language.

On television, most types of nudity are usually allowed to be shown after the "watershed" of 9pm, except for shots of an erect penis, which are forbidden. Scenes of simulated sexual activity are permitted; real depictions of sex are typically not.

Censorship of books has often included an outright ban on publication. D.H. Lawrence's "Lady Chatterley's Lover" was not legally printed in the UK until 1960, for example. Its publishing was part of possibly the greatest social upheaval of the 20th century; the prosecutor asked if the book was one which "you would wish your wife or servants to read" (it used the word "cunt" - shock, horror!) This sort of censorship persists to the modern day, with the works of authors such as Judy Blume being frequently challenged.

Other censorship can occur for the less blatant but more insidious reason of marketability. The third "Hitchiker's Guide" books, Life, the Universe and Everything, was censored for the American market. Two occurrences of "Asshole" were changed to "Kneebiter," and "The Most Gratuitous Use Of The Word 'Fuck' In A Serious Screenplay." was altered to "The Most Gratuitous Use of the Word "Belgium" in a Serious Screenplay."

Producers of films also engage in two kinds of self censorship. Sometimes, just one scene or shot is all that it takes to change a film's rating. Both kinds involve paying attention to the "standards" while making the film in order to achieve the desired rating. Sometimes, a movie-maker seeks to obtain a lower rating by reducing objectionable material, possibly due to a contractual obligation to keep the film below a certain level, or simply for marketing purposes - G-rated movies have a different target audience, and PG-13 movies have historically been considered to have the largest audience demographic. Filmmakers most especially try to avoid NC-17 ratings or the local equivalent, as many theater chains will refuse to show such movies, greatly reducing their potential profitability.

In a related phenomenon, other times, a film-maker seeks to obtain a higher rating in order to promote the film's "adultness", usually to teenagers who wouldn't be caught dead paying to watch a "family friendly" movie, or simply because the audience will misunderstand what the movie is about if it gets a lower rating. A movie which might otherwise be rated G or PG might have a single instance of cursing inserted into it in order to raise its rating to PG-13, thereby presenting the film as being targeted towards its proper demographic.

Film-makers will sometimes attempt to game the system by including a scene or a line intending for it to be rejected by the producers or studio, either in order to "negotiate" down to the material that they really want to include while still pretending to be reasonable, or in order to distract the raters from other potentially objectionable material. This material occasionally is not rejected, and thus ends up in the final product, while at other times the rejected material may be used in promotional material before being cut from the final edit of the film. One example is the line "I haven't been fucked like that since grade school", from Fight Club, which was originally presented as "I want to have your abortion" as the line they could back down from, although the original line is included as a deleted scene on the Fight Club DVD. (The latter line "I want to have your abortion" was actually the original line from the book.[4])

The line between self-censorship and simple editing is not always clear-cut; people may cut out unimportant material simply because they feel it would distract or bother the audience, and thereby better present their true artistic vision or moral of the work, or simply for marketing reasons where their goal is simply to produce something to be consumed.

Lately, in several countries, a new form of censorship has been afoot. Unlike with previous forms, its promoters and practitioners not only pretend to be "committed to free speech," but also to be advocating or carrying out the censorship in the name of promoting or enforcing human rights.

Specifically, they have provided "hate speech" laws and (in some cases) special "human rights" tribunals, which function in the following manner:

This went on with little remark for many years, since the only people being convicted were neo-Nazis who advocated violence against Jews and other non-neo-Nazi groups.

That situation has changed with the designation of two new groups as "protected": Muslims and gays. Unlike race, both homosexuality and adherence to Islam are held by a significant sector of the population to be a "mutable" characteristic; homosexuality being deemed that way by proponents of reparative therapy, while adherence to Islam being indisputably so (arguably some Muslims will tell you apostasy results in capital punishment, but places with such practices are unlikely to have freedom of speech anyway). This means that, unlike in the cases of racism or anti-Semitism, much of the opposition to Islam and (to a lesser degree) homosexuality is not based in hate. Hence, prosecution of "hate speech" on these grounds is often regarded as ideological censorship.

In the U.K., the acquittal of Nick Griffin on the charge of calling Islam a "wicked vicious faith" spurred the enactment of a new hate speech law, the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006, specifically targeting blasphemy offensive speech on the grounds of one's religion.

In Canada, when the Western Standard magazine published the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons, a human rights complaint was brought against the magazine's publisher, Ezra Levant. Alan Borovoy, a lawyer who had helped make the human-rights laws under which the complaint was made, stated that the laws had not at all been intended to be used in such a manner.[5] The complainant, Syed Soharwardy, later withdrew it, saying he had gotten a better understanding of freedom of speech and now thought he might be abusing the laws.[6]

When certain advocacy groups are unable to convince the government to censor content that they deem offensive, those groups often establish an "advisory board." These boards then advise like-minded people to avoid certain films, books, TV shows, etc. Sometimes these groups are relatively weak, so they come off as more annoying than ominous. Others make it their mission to influence public policy. Some religious organizations, however, have gone a step further, since most religious leaders have no qualms about bullying their followers into obeying their demands.

In the early 20th century, the Catholic Church established the Legion of Decency to "advise" parishioners on which movies to avoid at the risk of condemning their immortal souls to everlasting hellfire. No, really! Catholics were told that if they watched certain movies, they were committing a cardinal sin and that they would go to hell for willfully disobeying the Church. Even future Oscar winning films weren't spared the wrath of the Legion.[7]

Other such advisory boards include:

Some people who promote censorship aren't closet totalitarians. Sometimes they're just nuts.

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DNA Learning Center

Posted: September 24, 2015 at 7:44 am

Laboratory experiments, computer explorations, and an interactive exhibition for students, educators, and the public.

Sign-up for info on new resources and educational opportunities! See our archived newsletters.

The DNALC has teamed up with the Breakthrough Prize and Khan Academy to design a cutting-edge $100,000 Science Lab as part of the $400,000 grand prize for this new competition. Move fast! The deadline is October 7, 2015.

Join the world-renowned Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory as a Faculty Teaching Fellow at DNA Learning Center Asia China's first hands-on genetics education center.

Gene Screen was named the National Human Genome Research Institute's and Smithsonian Institution's August 2015 "Resource of the Month" on Unlocking Life's Code!

The DNALC family of websites includes 2- and 3-D animations, scientist interviews (including 12 Nobel laureates!), historical images, and teaching aids.

Roll over a screenshot for info. Click to launch site.

The Eugenics Archive includes 2,400 photographs, pedigrees, letters, brochures, manuscripts, and articles from archives in the US and UK. Essays by science historians put the vast image database into context.

Discover the concepts and experiments that define the fields of genetics and molecular biology. This animated primer features the work of over 100 scientists and researchers. Includes animations, scientist video interviews, biographies, photo galleries, and links.

Animations present the cause, inheritance, and treatment of 15 common genetic disorders. Interviews with doctors, researchers, healthcare providers, and individuals affected by a disorder offer personal perspectives. Partner site to DNA from the Beginning.

DNAi looks back on the discovery of the DNA structure with a vast collection of interviews and interactive 2- and 3-D animations. myDNAi provides teacher-oriented resources including guides, activities, lesson plans, and the online Lesson Builder.

Explore cancer biology, cancer pathways, and the molecular basis of diagnosis & treatment. Use Teacher Center to inform students on how molecular and cellular genetics are integrated into cancer prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.

The maize genome sequence is just the most recent of experiments with corn stretching back 10,000 years. Weed to Wonder tells the story how human ingenuity transformed a common Mexican weed (Teosinte) into a modern food and fuel wonder (corn).

Learn About SMA, developed with support from the Spinal Muscular Atrophy Foundation, is a resource for SMA patients, families and researchers, including stories of living with SMA and the science behind emerging therapies.

G2C Online is modeled on principles of neural networking, which examines current research to discover the molecular and cellular basis of human thinking. Use network maps to explore our library of 750+ items, including an interactive 3-D brain.

These sites are built around laboratory and bioinformatics experiments and were often developed in collaboration with Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory scientists.

Roll over a screenshot for info. Click to launch site.

Analyze your DNA with the DNALC's bioinformatics tools: Sequence Server, Allele Server, and Simulation Server. Compare your DNA with DNA from other humans and other species stored in a database maintained by the DNALC.

Kits developed in collaboration with Carolina Biological Supply Company provide lab protocols online and for download and accompanying resources.

Learn about plant genomes by using bioinfomatics to analyze newly sequenced genes in rice and maize. Animated tutorials lead into step-by-step analysis of a gene model using Apollo, research software for gene annotation.

Gene Boy is a simple, multi-function, sequence analysis tool. Enter your own sequence or use a preloaded sequence to perform several analyses and tranformations on the sequence.

Find out what DNA tells us about human origins. Use your own DNA to explore relationships between different ethnic populations. Complete with laboratory protocols and information on how to send samples to the DNALC for sequencing.

Bring students up-to-date on advances in plant genetics and genomics by integrating laboratory experiences with online bioinformatics resources.

Use this lab notebook with experiment- and bioinformatics curriculum on RNAi in C. elegans. Has laboratory protocols, photos and videos of C. elegans mutants, and a check-out system for C. elegans mutants and E. coli feeding strains.

The Urban Barcode Project (UBP) is a science competition spanning the five boroughs of New York City made possible by funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. In the project, student research teams use DNA barcoding to explore biodiversity in NYC.

Lab Center provides pre- and post-visit activities for laboratory field trips. Video intros, online and downloadable protocols, animations, and videos enhance student understanding. Password-protected teacher resources also included.

DNA Barcoding 101 includes experimental method and supporting resources for using DNA barcoding to identify plants or animals - or products made from them.

DNA Subway is a bioinformatics workspace that makes high-level genome analysis available to biology students and educators. Predict and annotate genes in up to 100,000 basepairs of DNA and prospect entire plant genomes.

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DNA – Georgia State University

Posted: at 7:44 am

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) in a living cell contains the master blueprint for the production of proteins and for the replication of itself. It is the repository for the hereditary information. DNA accomplishes protein production by first providing a pattern for the production of mRNA, a process called transcription. The RNA then contains the information from the DNA to manufacture a protein, a process called translation. Some proteins are structural, but some are control proteins called enzymes. These enzymes are employed in the production of proteins, even copies of themselves, so enzymes are used to make other enzymes. Each protein, including enzymes, is made according to a pattern of nucleotides along a segment of the DNA called a "gene". A single living cell contains thousands of enzymes.

Another way to organized these ideas is in terms of the "central dogma" of molecular biology.

Though a useful organizing structure, the "central dogma" has numerous exceptions. For example, retroviruses use "reverse transcription" to construct DNA from RNA. In general, not every gene gets expressed all the way to the construction of proteins. Some RNAs have other tasks to do, such as the ribosomal RNA and other specifically tasked RNAs with specific tasks in the cell.

Biochemical concepts

Chemistry concepts

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Ancestry DNA Tests for Genealogists – Information

Posted: at 7:44 am

Monty Rakusen/Photodisc/Getty Images

Popularized by its use in high-profile criminal investigations and paternity cases, DNA, deoxyribonucleic acid, is most commonly used to prove a relationship to an individual. New tests created in recent years, however, have also turned DNA into a popular tool for determining ancestry and predicting health and genetic traits. As DNA is passed down from one generation to the next, some parts remain almost unchanged, while other parts change greatly.

This creates an unbreakable link between generations and it can be of great help in reconstructing our family histories.

While it can't provide you with your entire family tree or tell you who your ancestors are, DNA testing can:

DNA tests have been around for many years, but it is only recently that the cost of genetic testing has finally come down into the realm of possibility for the average individual interested in tracing their roots. Some homeDNA test kits can often be ordered for less than $100 (cost varies by test)andusually consist of a cheek swab or a spit collection tube to easily collect a sample of cells from the inside of your mouth. You send back the sample through the mail and within a month or two you receive the results - a series of numbers that represent key chemical "markers" within your DNA.

These numbers can then be compared to results from other individuals to help you determine your ancestry.

Confused with all the talk of markers, mutations and haplotypes? See Genetic Basics: Understanding the Clues Found in Our DNA

There are threebasic types of DNA tests available for genealogical testing. Each has a different purpose and one can only be used by males.

Autosomal DNA (atDNA)(All lines, available for both men and women) - Available for both men and women, this test surveys 700,000+ markers on all 23 chromosomes to look for connections along all of your family lines (maternal and paternal). The test results provide some information about your ethnic mix (thepercentage of your ancestry that comes from Central Europe, Africa, Asia, etc.), as well as as helps to identify cousins (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.) on any of your ancestral lines. Autosomal DNA only survives recombination (the passing down of DNA from your various ancestors) for an average of 57 generations, so this test is most useful for connecting with genetic cousins and connecting back to more recent generations of your family tree.

mtDNA Tests(direct maternal line, available forboth men and women)- Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is contained in the cytoplasm of the cell, rather than the nucleus. This type of DNA is passed by a mother to both male and female offspring without any mixing, so your mtDNA is the same as your mother's mtDNA, which is the same as her mother's mtDNA. mtDNA changes very slowly, so iftwo people have an exact match in their mtDNA, then there is a very good chance they share a common maternal ancestor, but it is hard to determine if this is a recent ancestor or one who lived hundreds of years ago. It is important to keep in mind with this test that a male's mtDNA comes only from his mother and is not passed on to his offspring.

Example: The DNA tests that identified the bodies of the Romanovs, the Russian imperial family, utilized mtDNA from a sample provided by Prince Philip, who shares the same maternal line from Queen Victoria.

Y-DNA Tests(direct paternal line, available for males only)- The Y chromosome in the nuclear DNA can also be used to establish family ties. The Y chromosomal DNA test (usually referred to as Y DNA or Y-Line DNA) is only available for males, since the Y chromosome is only passed down the male line from father to son. Womendon't have a Y chromosome!Tiny chemical markers on the Y chromosome create a distinctive pattern, known as a haplotype, that distinguishes one male lineage from another. Shared markers can indicate relatedness between two men, though not the exact degree of the relationship. Y chromosome testing is most often used by individuals with the same last name to learn if they share a common ancestor.

Example: The DNA tests supporting the probability that Thomas Jefferson fathered the last child of Sally Hemmings were based on Y-chromosome DNA samples from male descendants of Thomas Jefferson's paternal uncle, since there were no surviving male descendants from Jefferson's marriage.

Markers on both mtDNA and Y chromosome tests can also be used to determine an individual's haplogroup, a grouping of individuals with the same genetic characteristics. This test may provide you with interesting information about the deep ancestral lineage of your paternal and/or maternal lines.

Next > What Can I Expect to Learn From the Tests?

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DNA – News – Science – The New York Times

Posted: at 7:44 am

Remains of unidentified soldiers who died aboard battleship Oklahoma during 1941 Pearl Harbor attack are being reexamined and subjected to DNA testing in order to confirm their identities; severe damage done to bodies on Oklahoma, one of two ships in battle damaged beyond repair, has made identification process difficult. MORE

Hannah Landenmark study in journal PLoS Biology calculates global biodiversity using new metric of amount of DNA found on Earth; study reports Earth contains around 50 trillion trillion trillion DNA base pairs. MORE

David Rosenberg, who was given up for adoption by his mother Margaret Erle Katz in 1962, relocated her with help of a DNA testing kit and the Internet, only to have less than a month with her before he succumbed to thyroid cancer; growing number of adoptees are locating birth parents using similar tools. MORE

Atlanta jury awards more than $2 million to Atlas Logistics Group Retail Services workers who were required to submit to DNA samples in effort to identify out who had been defecating in warehouse. MORE

DNA matching Richard W Matt and David Sweat, murderers who escaped from Clinton Correctional Facility in upstate New York, is found in cabin 15 miles from prison; Matt and Sweat were discovered missing from prison on June 6. MORE

DNA evidence extracted from elephant dung, tissue and hair could help researchers to identify origins of illegal ivory and target poachers. MORE

Researchers have created fuller picture of how Ebola virus spread and evolved during 2014 outbreak by sequencing genomes of viruses from over 400 patients in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia. MORE

Study published in journal Nature finds that Kennewick Man, 8,500-year-old skeleton that was discovered in Washington state riverbed, has no European DNA, and that he was likely most closely related to Native Americans; remains became subject of controversy as various groups attempted to claim them. MORE

London-based skincare store GeneU uses DNA testing to match treatments to each customer. MORE

Two studies in journal Nature present largest examinations ever done of ancient European DNA, extracted from 170 skeletons found in countries from Spain to Russia; both studies show Europeans descend from three groups who entered area at different stages in history. MORE

Atlanta judge rules that Atlanta warehouse owner Atlas Logistics Group Retail Services violated Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act when it tested DNA of two men to determine if they had been leaving piles of feces around workplace; decision in unusual case shows scope of law goes beyond its original intent. MORE

Mat Johnson Lives essay describes taking DNA test in order to clear up question of how black he really is, and having one done for his mother as well; notes that there are issues of identity that cannot be resolved by finding out details of one's racial heritage. MORE

Researchers are making progress in using immunotherapy to fight cancer, or using DNA mutations inherent in immune system to beat cancer at its own game; questions remain, however, as to why treatments work better against some cancers than others and why some patients do not respond. MORE

National Institute of Standards and Technology announces new reference standards that could be used to ensure accuracy of DNA testing; marks important step towards new era in the use of genetic medicine. MORE

Profile of Dr Jennifer A Doudna, biochemist at University of California, Berkeley, who is fighting for control of potentially highly profitable intellectual property rights to what is known as the Crispr-Cas9 genome editing technique; Doudna, who helped discover the process, is also actively working to deepen scientific community's understanding of bioethics concerns that have arisen from the revelation of this new way to alter DNA. MORE

Dr Love Dalen study published online in Current Biology reports that researchers have sequenced DNA of woolly mammoth and have determined that species most likely died out on an isolated island from inbreeding. MORE

Law enforcement authorities arrest Joseph Giardala at Los Angeles International Airport and return him to New York to face charges after DNA evidence links him to 1995 rape case in West Village; case is latest effort by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr to use DNA to solve cold cases. MORE

Chinese researchers try and fail to permanently alter DNA in human embryos; widely-predicted failure follows outcry from scientific community, which had called for halt to research until it could be proved safe and until ethical debate could proceed; researchers were attempting to alter DNA in manner that would be passed on to future generations. MORE

DNA-matching web sites have brought to forefront stories of babies illegally sold by Gertrude Pitkanen of Butte, Mont, to adoptive couples through the 1950s; baby-sellers like Pitkanen, midwife who also performed illegal and sometimes fatal abortions, are part of mid-20th century American subculture; so-called Gertie's Babies, who have found relatives through sites, say they are unique as they never found living biological parents due to how securely secrets were kept. MORE

DNA study published in online digital library bioRxiv reports that geneticists in Great Britain have found Armenians are mix of ancient populations that existed from 3000 to 2000 BC; period confirms date given by fifth century historian Movses Khorenatsi for founding of Armenia. MORE

Scientific community is engaged in debate about whether majority of any given genome's DNA actually serves purpose; recent research has caused some to question idea, and debate is in many ways latest skirmish in intellectual battle that has been going on for 200 years. MORE

Study in journal Science concludes that wheat has existed in Great Britain for 8,000 years, according to DNA evidence, suggesting that it made its way from Neolithic farmers of Southern Europe to Mesolithic hunter-gatherers of Britain. MORE

Scientists are developing tools that allow investigators to create facial image of suspect using DNA found at crime scene; process, known as forensic DNA phenotyping, has raised concerns among some who question technology's accuracy or warn that it could increase racial profiling or lead to privacy violations. MORE

Study in journal Current Biology shows that mice embryos injected with bits of human DNA grow brains 12 percent larger than embryos injected with chimpanzee genes, demonstrating role that gene sequence HARE5 plays in human brain development. MORE

Scientists are finding that they can confirm presence of animal species in a particular location and track their movements by collecting animal's DNA that was shed in environment; DNA samples may persist in area for weeks, allowing researchers to detect invasive and resurgent species, animal diversity, and, perhaps eventually, to measure animal populations. MORE

Pres Obama plans to request hundreds of millions of dollars to fund research into medical treatments attuned to specific patients' DNA and other characteristics; some experts consider so-called 'personalized medicine' or 'individualized medicine' to be forefront of field. MORE

California's First District Court of Appeal strikes down state law requiring collection of DNA from anyone arrested on suspicion of committing a felony, citing state Constitution's ban on unreasonable search and seizure. MORE

Nobel laureate James D Watson, a pioneer in DNA science, will auction his prize medal and donate much of proceeds to educational institutions; move is part of Watson's effort to redeem himself after making offensive remarks about race in 2007 that tarnished his reputation. MORE

DNA analysis of bite marks on harbor porpoises shows that gray seals are often responsible for wounds. MORE

Research shows that obtaining DNA swab from fang mark of snake bite can accurately identify type of snake, helping medical professionals to administer correct antivenin. MORE

Office of Chief Medical Examiner holds New York City Missing Persons Day to help identify the roughly 1,200 bodies they have received since about 1990 that they have been unable to identify; relatives gather to offer DNA samples, which will be used to create a corresponding forensic number that is then crosschecked against genetic information in a city database and others maintained by municipalities across the country. MORE

Study in journal Nature reports that scientists have reconstructed genome of man who lived 45,000 years ago, by far the oldest genetic record ever obtained from modern humans; research provides new clues to expansion of modern humans from Africa into Europe and Asia, as well as strong evidence that early humans interbred with Neanderthals. MORE

Experts working to identify the victims of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 say they have positively identified 173 individuals from DNA samples. MORE

Food and Drug Administration approves first screening test for colon cancer that uses patients DNA to help spot potentially deadly tumors and growths. MORE

Italian police link Massimo Giuseppe Bossetti to 2011 murder of 13-year-old Yara Gambirasio after embarking on country's largest DNA dragnet, taking genetic samples from nearly 22,000 people; DNA testing also unexpectedly revealed that Bossetti was the illegitimate son of a man who had died in 1999, setting off debate over risks of privacy violations in criminal investigations involving DNA searches. MORE

Dr Bryan Sykes study in Proceedings of the Royal Society B performs first rigorous genetic analysis of three dozen hair samples that collectors claim came from undiscovered living humanoids, such as the Yeti or Sasquatch; study reveals that hairs came from range of known creatures, from humans to dogs. MORE

New fertility treatment could avoid certain hereditary diseases by altering genetic makeup of egg, raising issues of whether or not such a process is ethical or even safe. MORE

Study published in journal Nature Communications reports that researchers are able to determine where strain of malaria originated by using DNA 'bar code' of 23 short snips from genes of parasites. MORE

Researchers at University of California, San Francisco, use DNA sequencing to pinpoint, within 48 hours, what had been causing 14-year-old Joshua Osborn's brain to swell for weeks; breakthrough holds great promise for diagnostics, but experts say it will be years before method is in widespread use; case is reported in the New England Journal of Medicine. MORE

Adam Liptak Sidebar column; South Carolina Supreme Court will decide whether to hear appeal of Billy Wayne Cope, who claims his confessions in 2001 rape and murder of his daughter were coerced; DNA tests identified a different man, James Sanders, as the perpetrator. MORE

Scientists at Scripps Research Institute create first living organism with artificial DNA, taking significant step toward altering the fundamental alphabet of life; accomplishment could lead to new antibiotics, vaccines and other products, though a lot more work needs to be done before this is practical; research, published online in journal Nature, is bound to raise safety concerns and questions about whether humans are playing God. MORE

Study in journal PLoS One reports that Harvard researchers generated hemihelix, helix that changes direction midway, while working with complex rubber band; unusual shape is variation on helix often associated with DNA strand. MORE

Op-Ed article by evolutionary geneticist Svante Paabo warns against using sequenced genomes of Neanderthals to re-create Neanderthal individuals; contends from an ethical perspective such an idea should be condemned, and argues that using stem cells to create cells and tissues in test tubes for research is far more ethically defensible and technically feasible. MORE

Scientists have revealed that unusual repeating DNA sequence occurring next to gene in common bacterium are part of sophisticated immune system used to fight viruses; molecular system, known as Crispr, may provide scientists with power to edit genome and make precise changes to DNA of humans, essentially rewriting code of life. MORE

Municipal administration in Naples, Italy, decides to take DNA samples of dog waste on the sidewalks so that they may track down owners who do not pick up after their dogs; cutting-edge campaign is attempt to address widespread urban problem. MORE

British scientists will grind up some of King Richard IIIs bones to try to sequence his genetic code, about a year and a half after discovery of his corpse. MORE

Anne Eisenberg Novelties column holds that as technology becomes more sophisticated, genomic sequencing will inevitably expand into the world of newborns, but the process has both medical and ethical implications. MORE

Two studies show how the legacy of Neanderthals endures 30,000 years after their extinction, finding Neanderthal genes in skin and hair that may have helped humans evolve; findings appear in journals Nature and Science. MORE

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DNA vs RNA – Difference and Comparison | Diffen

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DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is like a blueprint of biological guidelines that a living organism must follow to exist and remain functional. RNA, or ribonucleic acid, helps carry out this blueprint's guidelines. Of the two, RNA is more versatile than DNA, capable of performing numerous, diverse tasks in an organism, but DNA is more stable and holds more complex information for longer periods of time.

DNA and RNA are nucleic acids. Nucleic acids are long biological macromolecules that consist of smaller molecules called nucleotides. In DNA and RNA, these nucleotides contain four nucleobases sometimes called nitrogenous bases or simply bases two purine and pyrimidine bases each.

DNA is found in the nucleus of a cell (nuclear DNA) and in mitochondria (mitochondrial DNA). It has two nucleotide strands which consist of its phosphate group, five-carbon sugar (the stable 2-deoxyribose), and four nitrogen-containing nucleobases: adenine, thymine, cytosine, and guanine.

During transcription, RNA, a single-stranded, linear molecule, is formed. It is complementary to DNA, helping to carry out the tasks that DNA lists for it to do. Like DNA, RNA is composed of its phosphate group, five-carbon sugar (the less stable ribose), and four nitrogen-containing nucleobases: adenine, uracil (not thymine), guanine, and cytosine.

In both molecules, the nucleobases are attached to their sugar-phosphate backbone. Each nucleobase on a nucleotide strand of DNA attaches to its partner nucleobase on a second strand: adenine links to thymine, and cytosine links to guanine. This linking causes DNA's two strands to twist and wind around each other, forming a variety of shapes, such as the famous double helix (DNA's "relaxed" form), circles, and supercoils.

In RNA, adenine and uracil (not thymine) link together, while cytosine still links to guanine. As a single stranded molecule, RNA folds in on itself to link up its nucleobases, though not all become partnered. These subsequent three-dimensional shapes, the most common of which is the hairpin loop, help determine what role the RNA molecule is to play as messenger RNA (mRNA), transfer RNA (tRNA), or ribosomal RNA (rRNA).

DNA provides living organisms with guidelinesgenetic information in chromosomal DNAthat help determine the nature of an organism's biology, how it will look and function, based on information passed down from former generations through reproduction. The slow, steady changes found in DNA over time, known as mutations, which can be destructive, neutral, or beneficial to an organism, are at the core of the theory of evolution.

Genes are found in small segments of long DNA strands; humans have around 19,000 genes. The detailed instructions found in genesdetermined by how nucleobases in DNA are orderedare responsible for both the big and small differences between different living organisms and even among similar living organisms. The genetic information in DNA is what makes plants look like plants, dogs look like dogs, and humans look like humans; it is also what prevents different species from producing offspring (their DNA will not match up to form new, healthy life). Genetic DNA is what causes some people to have curly, black hair and others to have straight, blond hair, and what makes identical twins look so similar. (See also Genotype vs Phenotype.)

RNA has several different functions that, though all interconnected, vary slightly depending on the type. There are three main types of RNA:

DNA's genes are expressed, or manifested, through the proteins that its nucleotides produce with the help of RNA. Traits (phenotypes) come from which proteins are made and which are switched on or off. The information found in DNA determines which traits are to be created, activated, or deactivated, while the various forms of RNA do the work.

One hypothesis suggests that RNA existed before DNA and that DNA was a mutation of RNA. The video below discusses this hypothesis in greater depth.

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DNA vs RNA - Difference and Comparison | Diffen

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DNA Structure – Contents page

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An Interactive Animated Nonlinear Tutorial by Eric Martz Adapted for using Jmol instead of Chime, by Angel Herrez Part of Biomodel website by Angel Herrez, Univ. de Alcal (Spain)

Disponible tambin en espaol. Tambm disponvel em portugus. Auch verfgbar auf Deutsch. Disponible aussi en franais.

This version works in any Java-compatible browser. Java Virtual Machine must be installed (JVM, included with some operating systems or available in Sun's Java website). More tutorials on DNA and proteins, in English, Spanish, etc., are indexed at molvisindex.org.

If you prefer using Chime for molecular models, the page using it is still available, with equivalent content and functionality.

This tutorial is designed to complement Biology or Biochemistry and Molecular Biology books, so it is not by itself a complete introduction to DNA structure. Please, check the original source for more recent versions. You can also read the version history.

You can request a copy of this tutorial for off-line use; once you have your own copy on your computer's hard disk, you can use it without an Internet connection (and it will run faster).

Methods, Acknowledgements, and References.

Do you know there are more tutorials at MolviZ.Org? Feedback/Requests to or .

More about Jmol: Jmol home page.

The use of this work is subjected to the conditions stated on the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License (details)

This DNA Tutorial is being used in the Biomedical Sciences Curriculum developed by Project Lead The Way, Inc., a not-for-profit corporation that provides curriculum at no charge to high schools and middle schools located in the United States.

This DNA Tutorial (English and Spanish versions) has been included in BioMolecular Explorer 3D, version 2, a website+CD-ROM designed to give high school biology teachers easy access to interactive 3D structures of biologically significant molecules.

This DNA Tutorial (English and Spanish versions) has been included in the live bootable DVD Xplora Knoppix, by Xplora - The European Science Education Gateway.

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DNA Structure - Contents page

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DNA – University of California Museum of Paleontology

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Despite what you may have seen in some textbooks, DNA is not built like a twisted ladder. The helix, or spiral, is an inherent feature of the DNA molecule. Notice, for instance, that in the picture below, that the groove on the left side of the picture is much larger than the right side. This is because the paired bases in the center meet each other at an angle.

DNA is a very large molecule; the image here shows only a tiny fraction of the typical molecule. If an entire molecule of DNA from the virus "bacteriophage lambda" were shown at this scale, the image would be 970 meters high. For the bacterium Escherichia coli, the image would be 80 kilometers long. And for a typical piece of DNA from a eukaryote cell, the image would stretch for 1600 kilometers, about as far as it is from Dallas to Washington, D. C.! Obviously such a large molecule is not fully stretched out inside the cell, but is wound around proteins called histones which protect the DNA.

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DNA – Rotten.com

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rotten > Library > Medicine > DNA How did life first get started on this planet? And why does it suck so much? The answer is found in DNA.

DNA was discovered in 1869, but at the time, no one really knew what it was or whether it was important. Scientists knew that it was a complicated molecule found inside the cells of living things, and they suspected it had something to do with heredity.

In 1944, quantum physicist Erwin Schrodinger (of "Schrodinger's Cat" fame) published a collection of lectures titled What is Life? Schrodinger postulated that all life was somehow designed according a pre-set script that could found among the molecules of the body.

Following on his discoveries in the study of subatomic systems, Schrodinger believed that information about the structure of a life form was physically encoded into the life form at a very small scale, and that the code was inherited by each generation from the previous. Schrodinger challenged his contemporaries in the life sciences to find that code.

In the 1950s, two young scientists named James Watson and Francis Crick discovered that the molecules of DNA were coiled up in the double helix formation. A couple of years later, an experiment using bacteria proved that DNA was the medium for transferring hereditary -- also called genetic -- information.

By the time you finish reading this next section, you might well think DNA stands for "Do Not Ask," but it's actually an abbreviation for deoxyribonucleic acid. DNA is a string-shaped molecule arranged as two strands spiraling around each other, connected through the middle by hydrogen atoms. The shape is known as a "double helix."

The DNA molecule is twined very tightly, so that a large number of atoms fit into a very small space. Each strand of DNA contains a number of smaller molecule-like clusters of atoms, known as nucleotides. There are four nucleotides, each usually represented by a letter -- A, T, C, or G.

From here out, everything you read is going to be pretty grossly oversimplified. The nucleotide letters are arranged into three-letter "words" known as codons. There are 64 codons, or 64 possible combinations of the four nucleotides. (There are also 64 hexagrams in the I-Ching, which may or may not be a coincidence.) Each codon is sort of like a command in computer coding -- an instruction on how to do something.

Each set of instructions is framed by a "start" and "stop" codon. These markers are like a set of parentheses. Inside the parentheses, there is one specific set of instructions, which is almost always (Make a protein.) When a new set of parentheses begin, a new instruction has been launched, such as (Make a different protein.)

These instructions are carried out by RNA, or ribonucleic acid. Here's how it works: A molecule called an enzyme bonds with DNA, and the resulting chemical reaction creates RNA. When you unstick the RNA from the DNA, the RNA carries an impression of the DNA, called a transcription.

The RNA then drops into a simmering stew of amino acids, which are the carbon-based raw materials of life. The amino acids interact chemically with the RNA segment to make proteins, in a type dictated by the information copied from the parenthetical DNA segment. Like the gears and springs in a pocket watch, proteins are the fundamental machines that do the work of life within a cell.

If your eyes are glazing over right about now, don't feel bad. It's insanely complicated. Here's an absurdly oversimplified (but surprisingly reasonable) way to think about it: DNA is like a long string of connected Legos, and RNA is like Play-Doh.

The Play-Doh (RNA) presses onto the string of Legos (DNA), which leaves an indentation in the Play-Doh. The Play-Doh gets tacky and falls away from the Legos. The now-stiff Play-Doh drops into a pile of loose Legos (amino acids). As they bang around together, appropriately shaped Legos snap into the impressions left in the Play-Doh to make a new Lego construct (a protein).

The type and number of proteins in a cell determine whether the cell is a bone cell, a blood cell, a brain cell, or a spleen cell. By following some specific combination of codons in a segment of DNA, RNA manufactures all the parts that go into a cell, and by following the entire recipe book (decoding the entire strand of DNA in the correct order and with the proper raw materials), you can incubate an entire person... or cat, dog, mouse, aardvark, bacterium, virus, fungus, sunflower or dragonfly.

So this bizarre little super-complicated molecule holds basic recipe book on how to build a human being in about eleventy million trillion easy steps. How did this come to be?

We know that the origins of DNA are the origins of life on this planet. Unfortunately knowing that and knowing the actual origins of DNA are two different things.

Experiments have demonstrated that the combination of base chemicals and environmental conditions on primitive Earth -- including lava, electrical storms, carbon and water -- were conducive to the formation of complex organic molecules. Some organic molecules formed on Earth; others may have been dropped here by passing comets or meteors. It's not quite clear how, but all these factors appear to have come together to form RNA first, then RNA eventually became more complex and developed into DNA.

There isn't really any one view about how this happened, but the earliest forms of life derived from these first building blocks. Well, according to most views, anyway. From these simple building blocks, more complex forms of life evolved through the process of mutation. Because the process described above are extremely complex and involve millions of small chemical changes, there are numerous opportunities for something to go wrong between the Legos and the Play-Doh.

Although DNA can repair itself to a certain extent, some errors persist and are inherited by the next generation of the life form in question. Over the course of a great deal of time, this eventually led to the development of opposable thumbs, tonsils and third nipples.

Although the stuff was unimaginable just 200 years ago, DNA is now a part of everyday life. Because each person inherits a unique genetic sequence, DNA has revolutionized criminal investigations by offering a not-quite infallible method of identifying suspects from the blood, semen, spit and hair they leave behind. DNA testing can be used to establish paternity within an inconsequential margin of error.

In medicine, DNA grows more prominent every day. Although the genetic code still contains mysteries, scientists have managed to unlock genetic markers for various diseases. Some diseases are directly caused by faulty DNA. Gene therapy -- in which healthy DNA is spliced onto damaged DNA -- is still in its early stages. Gene therapy shows promise in principle, but its track record in clinical trials to date isn't stellar.

Then there's genetic engineering. We may not fully understand how DNA works, or where it came from, or exactly precisely how all those little codons work, but in typical human form, we have already figured out how to monkey with them.

Genetic engineering is rampant in the U.S. food industry, including tomatoes, beets, wheat and corn. On the bright side, GE has made foods more resistant to spoilage, more easily processed, or more easily cooked. GE hybrids, whether plants or animals, are known as transgenic organisms.

In order to accomplish this goal, genetic engineers do some questionable things, like splicing fish genes onto strawberries to keep them from freezing, or splicing human genes into chickens to make them grow larger more rapidly. Some early experimentation has been done splicing human DNA into pigs in order to grow pigs with organs that can then be transplanted into humans. (Would eating bacon from these pigs constitute cannibalism?)

Much of this gene splicing is done by introducing an engineered virus into the host organism. By their nature, viruses tinker with the DNA of host cells, so the strategy has a certain logic behind it. On the other hand, if you think there's something inherently alarming about creating viruses and introducing them into animals in order to create bizarre new interspecies hybrids, you're not alone.

The ultimate frontier -- tampering with the DNA of human beings -- is just around the corner. Rumors of human cloning persist, but no proven clones have surfaced yet.

There are two predominant reasons to tamper with human DNA -- to improve the health of a living human, or to breed children with specific traits, presumably superior ones. Experiments in the former area have been hampered because patients have an annoying tendency to die. It turns out that inserting genetically engineered viruses into people and animals can be bad for their health. Who would have thought it?

Experiments in the latter field, sometimes known as eugenics, are equally troublesome. Although trials with animals have produced super-smart mice and sheep whose breast milk contains insulin, it's still relatively taboo to talk about manufacturing smart, beautiful children with an insatiable appetite for world domination.

In the old days, eugenics had to be accomplished through the cumbersome task of selective breeding, but modern geneticists are increasingly able to manipulate DNA directly to enhance qualities such as strength, resistance to disease and intelligence. Although Adolf Hitler gave eugenics a bad name during the 1940s, scientists are still plugging away to promote the practice.

Although current efforts are mostly limited to examining ways to diagnose and treat genetically transmitted diseases like cystic fibrosis and cancer, you know it won't be long before we're all battling for our lives against a generation of supermen whose genes for morality were accidentally excised by an overeager scientist trying to prevent warts.

Naturally, we won't be able to beat them. You can only hope that the technology to create these superbabies won't exist during our lifetimes... which would be fairly pointless since the technology pretty much exists already, held in check by only a rapidly fraying string of ethical posturing. After all, the last time you stopped at McDonald's, you ate a tomato with fish genes in it. Pretty much anything goes after that.

O brave new world!

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