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.

Comments

Sprinkler...

[Iamthefallen]

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...

I've got the missing data...

[ConceptJunkie]

...and I'll sell it to them for $10 million.

int main( ) {
for int i = 0 to MAX_BASES_NEEDED do
switch ( rand( 4 ) ) do
case 0
print A
break
case 1
print C
break
case 2
print T
break
case 3
print G
break
end
end

return 0
}

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 /. might thwart my budding comedy career.

In desperation I have now changed my nicely formatted C++ code to pseudo-code.

Re:Read the damn art, data NOT lost!!!

[Lars T.]

So people, don't forgett to backup your genes.

Re:Question- has foul play been ruled out?

[Spackler]

Who stands to gain the most by a setback in the Human Genome Project?

God. He get's to keep the insipid sourcecode for these pesky humans closed for a few more years.

Didn't his patent expire yet?