Slashdot Mirror
Years Of Human Genome Data Lost In UCSC Fire
dsavitsk links to a New York Times article which reports that several years of data related to the human genome project have been lost in a fire at the University of California at Santa Cruz, seemingly with no backup.
And thus we see the problem of Gov't-sponsored research put into the public domain.
With no one realizing the innate value of the research, no one thought to keep it in a safe place. Everyone thought, "Hey, it's free and open, someone else must have a copy!"
Meanwhile, private companies who are devoted at mapping the genome have extensive safety and security measures set up to avoid disasters like this.
The data was not what was lost. It's the actuall genetic strains that have been cultivating over the past 14 years. The lead of the project says that it may take that long to re-generate the same strains...
Why must we assume that what was lost was data/computers.
From my take on the article, it was physical strands of DNA / biological matter which was lost.
gus
.. if only.
First rule of database management: back up your data.
I find it amazing that this data would not be backed up. Not to jump to conclusions or anything, but I bet this has to do with some cost cutting measure since it would be expensive to back up such a large amount of data. I guess now we get to see some middle management type sweat because his knuckleheaded decision cost years of research.
Maybe it's for the best though, god only knows what corporations would do after they got this information. After them genome is all figured out, it would be a race to profit, no matter who was hurt. And don't think for a minute this wouldn't be used for all the wrong reasons.
Chief Hernandez said the building did not have a sprinkler system because it was built in 1987, before fire codes required one.
Well if it wasn't required, then it wasn't needed really right? Besides, I hear lab equipment and 14 years of research is very cheap these days, much cheaper than decent fire-prevention measures...
Wax-Museum Fire Results In Hundreds Of New Danny DeVito Statues
January 13, 2002
Years of Data Lost in Fire at University
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
[S] ANTA CRUZ, Calif., Jan. 12 (AP) -- A fire tore through university laboratories here and destroyed genetic research that took years to develop, officials said today.
The fire began early Friday and destroyed the top floor of a laboratory at the University of California at Santa Cruz. It later flared up twice more and destroyed the interior of a second laboratory, said Charles Hernandez, the university's fire chief.
Prof. Manuel Ares Jr., chairman of the Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology Department, said, "It's a devastating situation," and added, "I don't know how far it has set me back."
He said many of the genetic strains in his laboratory had taken 14 years to develop and could take that long to replace. His work was related to the Human Genome Project, a national effort to identify the tens of thousands of genes in human DNA.
Chief Hernandez said the building did not have a sprinkler system because it was built in 1987, before fire codes required one.
The cause
The fire probably didn't destroy much (or any) electronic data. But the genetic strains should have been "backed up" just as any of us know that we should backup our data.
My girlfriend's previous employment was in a lab that appears similar to this blackened one. They carried out research using cell lines with genetic traits that had taken years to develop. These cells can generally be frozen for later use, but since the freezer is in the same building a fire could destroy that too. So they donated cell-lines to other research groups, on the condition that they stored a portion of the sample.
Accidents happen. Data-loss doesn't need to.
Who stands to gain the most by a setback in the Human Genome Project? I'm not up on all the details but aren't there several corporations that are trying to "finish" first so they can patent the data before it is released into the public domain? If this is the case then it would be in best interest to slow down the competition...
Perhaps someone can shed some light on this?
Just an idea.
Have they narrowed down the cause yet? It's a suspicious sort of target - kind of like a fire at an abortion clinic...
And if they lost important strains it's their own dang fault. Who doesn't have a backup location for storage of something so valuable? I know - this could be their way of cashing in on research that wasn't going anywhere (assuming adequate insurance).
Don't complain - paranoia is par for the course here.
.
Let's not stir that bag of worms...
Let me just rattle on a bit to try to get past the lameness filter. It seems to me, if the lameness filter really worked, Slashdot might be pretty hungry for comments. I'm not saying I don't make a lot of lameness myself, but calling something like this a "lameness" filter would be like checking if someone is breathing and calling it an intelligence test.
Furthermore, how could a site for "nerds" be set up to filter out a small snippet of source code. Hello! Earth to
Anyhow, I'm hoping that if I spew enough lame but not-lame-looking text I can actually post, what I thought was an amusing joke, but
In desperation I have now changed my nicely formatted C++ code to pseudo-code.
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
There are as many backups as there are strands of hair on the researchers head (since every strand is a backup). The only problem is the backups are a bit hard to read.
I find it hard to believe that any computer data was lost without a backup. The project was costly and took a while, they must have all their digital data backed up in multiple physical locations. This is rule #1 for all reaserchers. Besides, from the article, it looks that their biggest loss is physical matter, not information data.
----------
No such thing as too connected, - http://www.cryptoheaven.com
Banana Slug Data?
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts."
Extremist eco-freak groups like the Earth Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front have no problem with destroying years of hard research for the hell of it, even if the results would benefit humanity and nature as a whole. These people have no scruples, only a hard-line ideology that makes an enemy out of technology.
Ironically, most of these so-called "radicals" likely got to and from their arson in gas-guzzling SUVs, paid for by Daddy's credit card and job as a lawyer for one of those "evil corporations."
These people should not only be made to pay for the lost research, but for the lives lost as a result of further research not being available to develop important cures and vaccines. Personally, I think being forced to forage for food in a stinking inner-city core would be perfect justice, as after the first dog bite or cut from a rusty nail, they'll be running to a hospital for some of that exploitative Western medicine.
Stupid, dangerous hypocrites, the lot of them. They should pay the price that their ersatz "rebellion" has cost so many others.
... on the research, not the fire. If you look at the Professor's homepage, you can see that he was working on:
Our work centers on the mechanisms and regulation of splicing. Splicing is required to remove intron sequences from pre-mRNA and create coding sequences for translation. Yeast has been our organism of choice for these studies because it offers simple, powerful genetic approaches and has a splicing machinery similar to that in mammalian cells. In addition the yeast genome is completely sequenced, the location of nearly every intron is known and genes for most splicing factors have been identified. This provides unique advantages for the study of splicing.
Kinda puts some perspective on what was lost as opposed to "data related to the Human Genome Project."
In Soviet Russia, sig types you!
Data lost? Did you read the article? No, you didn't. Hang your head in shame! =)
p.s. We'll settle for you going away and never coming back. =)
You don't like your car, but the parts are just enough to make a hefty bundle, right? So, how do you start a fire? Exactly. Now if we only knew where the info is really going...
-- Game Developers: Stop porting badly-textured games from crappy console systems!
::sniff sniff:: Smells like a government coverup to me... ever seen the X-Files?? ...then you know what I mean...
It was penny-wise and pound-foolish for these morons not to instal proper equipment like sprinklers. You'd think a laboratory (where fires are prone to break out) would have such prophylactics implemented.