Comments on: Genetics: Exceptionally Cool?

By: Bookmarks about Genetics

Bookmarks about Genetics — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 20:30:23 +0000

[...] – bookmarked by 1 members originally found by planetclaire on 2008-10-27 Genetics: Exceptionally Cool? http://hernaturehisnurture.wordpress.com/2008/07/14/genetics-exceptionally-cool/ – bookmarked by 4 [...]

By: Genetics for fun, not health « her Nature his Nurture

Genetics for fun, not health « her Nature his Nurture — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 14:35:57 +0000

[...] while ago I posted about “recreational genetics,” a term that was refuted by a couple of commenters on [...]

By: liam

liam — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:59:12 +0000

allie, your comment about the MOMA exhibit reminded me of a really cool movie you might be interested – it’s called “Strange Culture” and it chronicles a artist/university professor who made art revolving around genetically modified food.

It’s really a trip of a documentary as he ends up being suspected for bioterrorism and gets stuck in the courts for four years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange_Culture

By: Personalized Genetics: Selfome « ScienceRoll

Personalized Genetics: Selfome « ScienceRoll — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 21:53:18 +0000

[...] are some quite interesting opinions in the blogosphere I would like to share with you. Allie Janson thinks there should be a distinction between recreational and medical genetics. There is no harm in [...]

By: Fredric Abramson

Fredric Abramson — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 13:20:04 +0000

As another involved with packaging non-disease genetic information for everyday lifestyle use, I naturally fall on the side of an open system.

It is important that labs not confuse samples and otherwise mix things up. But there are well proven safeguards to prevent this. Though of course there is always the chance of some human error.

I disagree about the distinction between medical and non-medical genetics. Most of the physicians in the US and the world have the same amount of genetic knowledge as lay people, which is very little. That’s just the way it is. It will take three decades to build the kind of expertise necessary for physicians to understand the scope of genetics. And there are so few genetic counselors, that it would be impossible to provide even cursory services to the US population.

As to the uncertainty, I think it worth noting that the public health community has no hesitation in telling people to lose 30 pounds or else become diabetic or have a heart attack. Yes, there is an increased statistical risk. But those and other outcomes are far far from certain. The same is true for other major diseases. So my question is “why do commentators want virtual certainty in consumer genetics but accept massive uncertainty in other health areas?”

By: Geoff

Geoff — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 05:14:08 +0000

As one of those marketing types linked here from Seth Godin, I can speak for myself & say that I am not at all ‘scared off’, on the contrary! Not only is your personal expertise highly interesting to me, it is rare to find a blog that combines two unrelated fields in such a fluid way. It’s great & I’ve already bookmarked your site, so thank you!

That said, I remember a piece (it might’ve been 60 Minutes) that investigated the ‘recreational’ genetics tests available to African-Americans, in order to determine an individual’s location-specific tribal roots in Africa. The reporter presented each interviewee with a summary that stated that the person was from, say, northern Sierra Leone. They wept with joy at discovering this, it was really something to see – the potential of modern science was powerfully illustrated.

But then the reporter presented her with a second summary by a different company. This one described her background as Nigerian. Then, a third summary from yet another company claimed her family was from Senegal. Elation turned into confusion, & understandably a degree of skepticism.

I’m not sure how well this parallels with testing for cancer-causing genotypes; but at best, it seems that genetics is not yet sure enough of itself to be marketed to consumers with such certainty. You said as much regarding the asparagus-pee genotype might be related to Alzheimer’s.